How to Evaluate a Patient With Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's is a degenerative disease that affects language, thought and memory. An adult intellectually regresses from adulthood to infancy within the different stages of the disease. It begins with forgetting simple things like food eaten the day before to eventually forgetting who you are and finally forgetting how to swallow. This disease can progress through years in the beginning to within just a few months in the end.



There are different methods of evaluating Alzheimer's patients. Some are given treatment at the initial diagnosis and others are observed to track progression of the illness.

Instructions

• 1

  Administer the "Mini Mental Status" exam, which evaluates the patient's current cognitive function and determine any cognitive loss. This test is divided into groups within the questionnaire to be filled out during testing. The total possible score is 30. Use the results to evaluate the level of impairment.

• 2

  Administer the "Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale," cognitive portion. This test is divided into 11 parts. Have the patient perform a series of performance tests to assess his motor ability in whether he remembers the steps to accomplish the task and to evaluate his mood and frame of mind. The total score for this test is 70. Use the results to evaluate the level of depression, agitation, psychosis or other abnormalities.

• 3

  Administer the "Mattis Dementia Rating Scale." This test will last 45 minutes. However, if during the test you feel that more complex questions are beyond the cognitive level of the patient, you may stop with the simpler questions. The total score possible is 144. Use the score to evaluate if the patient has any severe impairments.

• 4

  Administer the "Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD)" test. You evaluate the level of dementia with the CERAD. These results aid you in evaluation of the characteristics of the different stages of dementia in determining if the disease has further progressed.

• 5

  Administer the "Everyday Memory Battery" test. Set up the simulation on the computer software provided for the patient. Within this test your patient will perform every day tasks using the interactive software. Such tasks will include how to use a telephone, identifying people they know and using a calculator to make calculations. Evaluate the results generated from the program to determine if treatments are aiding the patient.

• 6

  Administer the "Wechsler Intelligence" test. The patient's intellectual regression and mental age can be determined with the results of this test.