Caffeine's Effects on Neuropsychological Assessment
April 22/Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Investigators have examined "the effect of recent consumption of caffeine-containing foodstuffs on neuropsychological tests in the elderly." Researchers from Oxford, U.K., "investigated the effect of recent intake of caffeine-containing foodstuffs (CCFS) on a group of elderly participants (age range 67-95 years) on a series of neuropsychological tests. There was no significant effect of CCFS intake on performance in any of the tests in the battery used.
"However, a significant interaction effect was found between age and CCFS consumption on scores of some neuropsychological tests. In these tests, participants with recent consumption of CCFS show a linear decrease in performance with increasing age, a pattern not seen for those that have no CCFS in their system. Accuracy in the neuropsychological assessment is of great importance when determining whether someone has a cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer's disease," wrote V.E. Lesk and colleagues, University of Oxford, Division of Medical Sciences.