Today Gregory took the "Mini-Mental Test." The test was given in our home by a representative from the Rush Hospital Memory & Cognitive Health Clinic to see if Gregory would qualify for an experimental drug study.
It is a brief, easy test used to get an approximate measure of a person's cognitive abilities. A perfect score is 30. Six years ago Gregory scored a 21. Today he scored a 10. While I was not surprised, it was a little sad to have my suspicions confirmed regarding his decline. Needless to say, he did not quality for the study.
Any score greater or equal to 25 is effectively normal. Below this, scores can indicate severe (equal to or less than 9,) moderate (10-20 points,) or mild (21-24 points,) cognitive impairment. This score may also need to be corrected for educational attainment and age so my guess is that Gregory's score was really lower than 10.
The questions included items like: What day is it? What year is it? What floor are you on? Can you name the room you are in? Can you repeat after me, "Neither if and or but." Repeat: "Penny, Apple, Flower." Spell the word "world." Take this piece of paper in your right hand, fold it in half, and place it on the table. Can you copy this design shown here onto the piece of paper. What is this called (pencil?) What is your address? What season is this? Can you write a complete sentence on the paper?
I would have scored a 29 out of 30 because I forgot the word "Flower" after three minutes when asked to repeat the three words mentioned earlier.
In follow up questions for possible future studies, Gregory was asked if he has difficulty concentrating. His response was a refreshing, "I don't have anything that I HAVE to concentrate on, but I can when I want to."
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