How to Know If Your Family Member Has Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is not uncommon. It is predominantly a disease of older people. There are many personality changes associated with this slowly progressive disease characterized mainly by memory loss. Initially changes my be subtle and may go unnoticed by the person or his family. Physicians administer, what is called as MMSE (Mini Mental State Examination), a set of questions to a patient to diagnose this disease. You may also perform this test on any of your family members to see if they have any degree of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. For each correctly answered question person gets a particular score.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Patient
• Normal, preferably young, person to administer questions
• Paper
• Pencil

1. Start by asking following set of questions. For each correctly answered questions person gets one point each:
   
   what is the Year?
   what is the Season?
   what is the Date?
   what is the Day?
   what is the Month?
2. Next ask following questions. For each correctly answered questions person gets one point each:
   
   what State are we in?
   what County are we in?
   what Town are we in?
   whose House are we in?
   what Floor are we on?
3. Tell the person that you are going to say names of 3 objects and that you want him to repeat these 3 words when you are finished speaking them and also that you want him remember these 3 objects for recalling after some time. You may use following 3 words: 'candy, torch and fan'.
   
   If person is able to repeat all 3 words, in any sequence, correctly in one attempt he gets 3 points, if he only repeated 2 he gets 2 points, if only one then he gets 1 point.
4. Ask the person to spell 'WORLD' backwards. For each correct alphabet in proper sequence he gets 1 point. Let's say he said 'D-L-R', he gets 3 points. If he got all right in right sequence he gets 6 points
5. After the above step ask him to recall the names of the 3 objects that you had told him to remember in step No. 3. For each correct object give 1 point.
6. Show the person 2 things and ask him to tell you what they are. e.g., show him a pencil and ask him 'what is this?'. Similarly, point towards a telephone and ask him what it is. For each correct answer give 1 point.
7. Ask the person to repeat the following sentence: "No ifs ands or buts" Allow only one trial. Give 1 point if he said it correctly.
8. Keep a blank sheet of paper on a table near the person and asks him to perform following 3-step action: 'Take the paper in your right hand, Fold it in half, and, put it on the floor'. Watch as he does this 3-step action. For each correct step he gets 1 point, so he gets a maximum of 3 in this item.
9. On a blank piece of paper write legibly and clearly: “Close your eyes,” Ask the patient to read what you have written on the piece of paper before showing it to him. Then hold this paper in front of his eyes and watch what he does. If he closes his eyes after reading the sentence he gets 1 point.
10. intersecting pentagons Draw on a plain sheet of paper diagram of 2 pentagons intersecting each other as shown in the picture. Ask the person to copy this design. He gets 1 point for doing it if: his drawing reveals 2 pentagons with all the 10 angles present and two intersecting.
11. Congratulations! you completed the test. Now you have to calculate the scores and interpret the results. The interpretation is easy:
    
    A total maximal score on the MMSE is 30 points. A score less than 24 points is suggestive of dementia (Alzheimer's disease) or delirium.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure the person being tested is able to hear and understand what you are asking him.
• If the person is hard of hearing please speak your questions loud.
• Do not haste through questions
• record your scores correctly.
• The test is not very sensitive for mild dementia.
• Scores may be influenced by age and education, as well as language, motor, and visual impairments.
• MMSE has false positive as well as false negative results. It is not the most definitive test to diagnose or treat Alzheimer’s disease. Please call your doctor when in doubt.