Alzheimer's Society Comments On New Alzheimer's Test

Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia
Article Date: 10 Jun 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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A new self administered cognitive screening test for detecting Alzheimer's disease has been developed by researchers at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, according to a study in bmj.com.

Test Your Memory (TYM) is a series of 10 tasks including ability to copy a sentence, semantic knowledge, calculation, verbal fluency and recall ability. The ability to do the test is also scored.

The test was completed by 540 healthy individuals (controls) aged 18 to 95 years of age with no history of neurological disease, memory problems or brain injury. A further 139 patients with diagnosed Alzheimer's or mild cognitive impairment were also tested.

The test was compared with the commonly used mini-mental state examination. The TYM detected 93% of patients with Alzheimer's disease, while the mini-mental state examination detected only 52% of patients.

'A test that helps detect dementia sooner in local health care facilities could help more people access vital care and support earlier. However, more research is needed to see if this test works in different settings with different groups of people and establish whether it is more effective than the most sensitive existing tests.

One million people will develop dementia in the next 10 years and currently only a third of people with the condition ever receive a diagnosis. We must start investing in research if we are to radically improve the current picture and defeat this devastating condition.'

Professor Clive Ballard
Director of Research
Alzheimer's Society

Source
Alzheimer's Society