My father took them when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease......he got aggravated a few times

it's a cognitive test memory and problem solving it has nothing to do with moral choices

What’s the utility of drawing a clock - is a shape with numbers more mentally taxing than a shape or numbers alone?

Just draw a Glock and get sent home early.

I know it's none of my business,  but did they check for other causes yet? Brainfog and memory loss can be caused by other treatable conditions as well.

Yes. They will struggle to draw a proper looking clock with the hands sized appropriately,  pointing at the right time.

In my mom's case it's because she's interested in medication to slow down progression.  There are so many forms of dementia with various underlying causes and the medications will target the more specific mechanisms.  

Mom's mother had vascular dementia which is chronic low level oxygen deprivation killing the brain cells.  That would be treated differently than Alzheimer's where they would target the amyloid plaque build-up (still controversy over whether that is the or a causative thing or not but that's neither here nor there).  

And they won't have a sense of humor.  

So don't use Roman numerals like I did.

Make it a flip book of my parents VCR.  Thumbing the pages shows a flashing 12:00.

Being on Medicare now it's mandatory that I take a "test" once a year. At least in my Dr.s office it is. Simple math problems. Listen to a short story and answer questions about it. Falling off a log stuff IMHO. Biden would have failed no doubt.

There's a ton more tests that could be done for his initial assessment.
Remember 20 words, remember 20 abstract drawings, manipulate blocks in patterns for time, word association when shown pictures, math problems, character substitution (A is =, B is %, etc), pressing buttons on a computer when certain things happen or match, etc.

Stopping between tests to recover to baseline can make it take the full 8 hours.

Kharn

How you answer questions on those tests is just as if not more important as getting the answer right.

If they ask you, "Who is the President of the United States?" just answer the question "Joe Biden."  Don't go into a diatribe.

Avoiding questions or using delaying tactics, are symptoms they are looking for.  It will effect the evaluation and diagnosis.

They’re just going to have you read from a rolling teleprompter.  As long as you stay on script and don’t read aloud any words in [brackets] or (parentheses) … you’ll be just fine.

If they ask you to draw a clock, just draw a digital alarm clock. When they correct you and say “an old style clock with a face and hands”, just add add a smiley face, arms & hands and a beard to the clock you already drew.

Lots of misinformation and some good information in these responses. When I did family medicine, I would administer them to some patients.

OP, if it's just a screening test with your PCP, it's probably going to be a Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE) or a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).

MMSE

MoCA

They both have a score of 30 points. MoCA has the clock drawing test. Neither has the "who is the President" question, although MMSE asks "where are you right now", and "what is the year/season/date/day of the week". At times, they might throw in the President question here, but it's not an official question.

They both do subtraction by serial 7's, which is quite difficult for a lot of people.

If you are seeing a neurologist or neuropsychologist for more extensive testing, it will probably be more involved that these tests.


ETA: Or it might be like the opening scene from Blade Runner. (please don't shoot your examiner). Jump to 1:30.

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Serious question… Can someone with mid-stage dementia still shoot long distances very well?  

I don’t know if it’s hereditary, but several of my elders were diagnosed and it’s brutal by the end.  If I’m ever diagnosed… I’ve got plans.

Yep. I had 2 of these done. First time was when I started vision therapy after my stroke because they want to know what you see and read and then what you remember by seeing. A year later was the Second time with a neuropsychologist over 2 sessions. After 2 sessions he said it was pointless to do anymore testing because my results were too low to justify and after 18 months you’re at the end of healing phase.

I am not smarter than a 5th grader. Impulse control is lacking in certain situations, problem solving is terrible most days and barely passable on the others, following instructions is not good, short term memory is shit, and I forget the rest that is in the report 🤪.

You guys should see me try and cook from a recipe. It takes me forever and I reread it many times during the process because of the memory issues. Being able to fix almost anything and remembering how to do it the next time without a manual and remembering all the torque specs to having everything jerked out from underneath you is a hard pill to swallow even after 3+ years.

Test should be done by a Neuropsychologist. Run away fast if the Doc puts on a glove.

Some of them are online. Here's the MoCA (Montreal, very common).

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Mixing it with nitroglycerin will end your dementia instantly.

That is so much more racist than 2+2

A friend's mom is 75 and starting to very lightly lose her short term memory. She has 3 kids. 2 of then are asshokes and wanted to get her tested. So she went to a numerologist they chose. If she refuses the test they were going to inform the state to take her drivers license. They were total holes. She passes amd they said nobody ever passes. OP hopefully you have some friends that you can talk to if they think you might have issues also.

Unless you think you have a problem (and you're being honest - not in denial) - I wouldn't do it. Ride the train as long as you can.

Is there some event that triggered this? Or is it the doctor, oh I suggest everyone ever 65 get this $$$.

That's how I ended up on the table for an angiogram I didn't need. Always question it if you think you're getting played by a doctor.

A minute and twenty four seconds.  

My Mother suffered for nearly 20 years.
The last 5 in a bed with no recollection of anyone or anything.
I don’t wish that on my worst enemy.
Good luck with the testing.

On the contrary.
Know where you stand and arrange your affairs accordingly.
Will, power of attorney over your financial affairs, power of attorney over your medical wishes.

A bit late but start taking a good B complex vitamin.
B12 and other b vitamins are good for the brain.

We started my dad on them and I also just started taking them.

Exactly this.

And when someone shows early signs of cognitive decline, it may be a reversible cause (depression, anemia, thyroid disease, other endocrine diseases and more).

If it turns out to be something non-reversible and progressive (Alzheimers, Parkinsons, Fronto-temporal, Lewy body, etc), you really really want to know about this sooner than later and get your affairs in order. My Grandfather died of Alzheimers in 2006. His last 3-5 years had very significant decline. But in retrospect, he was showing signs for probably 5-10 years prior to that.

Mom and her sisters were able to get him and Grandma through the process of estate planning, wills, POA, etc., just barely in time. Looking back, he was barely competent to make these decisions. Fortunately, Mom and my Aunts had his very best interests in mind.

You don't want to be doing this when you're cognitively questionable with a family member with ulterior or self-serving motives.

Some of it depends on what you've been doing your whole life. What's really cognitively challenging for one person might be very easy for another.

Joe Biden is a very public and obvious example. He's been a politician for 60 years. He's been out gladhanding and backslapping and baby kissing for generations. And as long as he's in his comfort zone, he's still very good at it ("Hey, how you doin', Corn Po? Good to see ya!"). It's burned into the very deep part of his reptile brain. Take someone who doesn't have decades in the public eye and isn't a public speaker and they would struggle immensely with what Biden appears to do easily.

But as soon as you get outside his brain's muscle memory, holy cow! That dude would never pass a driving test. I doubt he could figure out his TV remote control or cell phone. There's no way he'll ever be allowed to do a live interview unless it's highly scripted with absolutely no hot takes or follow up questions.

Or Ozzy Osbourne. The dude is fried enough that listening to him speak is an exercise in futility, even ignoring his thick "Bwi-ish " accent. He's not a good speaker and that part of his brain probably looks like Swiss cheese. However, when he sings, it's a completely different part of his brain. And that part has been used and exercised so many times that he can still belt out his songs really well. But when he talks to the crowd in between sets, look out.
Well, answering I don't know over and over will get you a zero score on those sections. And it's common that people will get frustrated and mad. Because they know they can't come up with the answer. The other thing they'll do is called confabulation. They'll make stuff up to fill in the details.

It's not the same as consciously lying. When Grandpa was fairly far into his Alzheimers, he would tell some whoppers to Grandma. She was horrified, as he'd been as honest as the day is long and now he was telling these terrific lies. She thought he'd become morally bankrupt. We (and his doctors) had to tell her several times that this is part of the disease. When she found out about the term confabulation and looked it up, she felt much better, as this offered a medical explanation for his bizarre behavior.

If you want to pass, just draw clocks like Biden did!

No idea about the tests but good luck with whatever you’ve got going on.

A mental exercise that includes remembering a list of words. When you hear them, pause a bit and make up a sentence to remember them later.

“The man got Red Faced when he walked into the Church with a Daisy on his Velvet jacket.”

Yes. Two events actually. The nobody's business in the OP

Thank you everyone for their help and suggestions. They are a eye opener

I will come back to this thread when I know what is what.


Good to know

Best first post in a long time.  FJB

The sentence or picture method works great for five words.

Good luck with picturing 20 words coherently.  

And they don't tell you if the list will be five, 10, or 20 words when they start reading from it.

Kharn

This.  That’s some crazy shit.
I seen it.

Methylated?   Look it up.

Oh, I know she's not consciously lying.  Same as your grandfather, always honest----her faith is her life and lying is a sin.

It's just that she hates anything that shines a spotlight on how much she's lost and what she can't do.  She *knows* she's not going to be able to answer the questions so (I believe) she doesn't really try.  

She'd rather go in with a defeatist attitude, resigned to failure, because it makes the inevitable outcome easier to bear.  If she goes in and REALLY tries but still fails (which in her mind will ALWAYS be the result, regardless) that spotlight is on full blast.  

Was just speaking with my sister and BIL last night about it and he (has some type of progressive neurological disorder---not 100% on details but I know there was a mistaken dx of MS for a while so something similar---brain lesions, etc.) was talking about his experiences with the tests and he said he could give 1 or 2 correct answers when asked to remember 10 words in a list but would swear he couldn't name the rest.  However, they could then give him a list of 20 words (that had the original 10 mixed in) and he could pick out all 10 from the first list.  

Using hints used to have a measure of success with her recall in the previous short tests she's had but their ability to trigger the proper answer seems to be lessening lately.  

what?

medicare requires cognitive testing?

fuck that. not doing it


ETA: I looked it up, it is voluntary, not mandatory.

You will conform and you will like it, citizen.

I guess you don't know me.

You're already failing the cognitive test if you have to guess at whether or not I know you. Good luck. LMAO

Meds can delay worsening symptoms... can't treat what you don't know you have.

Hopefully, lots of negative results.
(Fingers crossed.)

I worked with a cop who failed his psych evaluation.