Overview & Contact Information at the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center
The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD) was established in 1986 by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), to standardize procedures for the evaluation and diagnosis of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Patients and nondemented control subjects were recruited from 24 NIA-sponsored Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers and other university programs in the US. Using standardized diagnostic criteria and valid and reliable assessment instruments, CERAD subjects were examined at entry and annually thereafter. Autopsy examination of the brain was conducted to the extent available. The clinical diagnosis of AD was confirmed in 87% of autopsied cases.
In the last four decades clinical advances have resulted in improved approaches to assessment, and some measures that were developed (e.g., neuropathology assessment, family history), no longer have the relevance they once had. This has not affected the neuropsychology battery, where use has increased beyond clinical assessment for AD, to include identification of mild cognitive impairment, differential diagnosis of more recently identified dementias, use in major epidemiological surveys world-wide, and for cognitive assessment of modifiable risk factors for AD. Translation, so far into ~20 different languages, and development of norms, has facilitated such use, and more.
Reviews of CERAD are given in the following articles:
Morris JC, Heyman A, Mohs RC, Hughes JP, van Belle G, Fillenbaum G, Mellits ED, Clark C, and the CERAD investigators. The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD). Part 1. Clinical and Neuropsychological Assessment of Alzheimer's Disease, Neurology, 1989, 39(9), 1159-1165. PMID: 2771064; doi: 10.1212/wnl.39.9.1159.
Fillenbaum GG, van Belle G, Morris JC, Mohs RC, Mirra SS, Davis PC, Tariot PN, Silverman JM, Clark CM, Welsh-Bohmer KA, Heyman A. CERAD (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease): The first 20 years. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2008; 4(2): 96-109. PMID: 18631955; PMCID: PMC2808763. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2007.08.005.
Fillenbaum GG, Mohs R. CERAD (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease) Neuropsychology Assessment Battery: 35 years and counting. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2023; 93(1): 1-27. PMID: 36938738; PMCID: PMC10175144; doi: 10.3233/JAD-230026 (see Supplement B for norms)
The National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) handles the CERAD Neuropsychology Assessment Battery and the Behavior Rating Scale for Dementia. Check: https://naccdata.org/data-collection/cerad for information on CERAD. This page includes a direct link to the CERAD permissions form: https://nacc.redcap.rit.uw.edu/surveys/?s=FD7TARECKW9FT9TR
Instruments are available in electronic format without charge to individual investigators. For institutional licenses please check with NACC at the same site.