La plainte subjective ne correspond pas toujours aux troubles cognitifs objectifs : réflexion à partir d'une population de patientes âgées atteintes d'un cancer du sein

The aim of this work is to show to what extent there is a gap between the subjective complaint of the patient and the objective cognitive deficit assessed by neuropsychological tests. This gap exists at any age in the general population but takes on a particular dimension when older persons are affected by a somatic disease. We illustrate our comments from our experience with 32 aged patients (over 70 years old), suffering from breast cancer, who required surgery. We propose two brief tools to help physicians and nurses achieve rapid assessment of mood and cognitive states in their old patients in order to refer them, when needed, to specialists.