Mini mental State Examination
As a resident in psychiatry you have the sufficient clinical skills to assess the cognitive status of a patent. Primary source of your assessment comes from systemic neurological examination and mental state examination. In addition you need to apply specific test that can be used both in bedside and also in OPD. At this point Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE, Folstein et al 1975)) is commonly use, that also known as Folstein Test.
MMSE assesses 6 domains: orientation, registration, attention and concentration, recall, language and construction. To assess these domains there are a series of verbal and performance tasks specifically for each domain. How to use it, assess the scores and interpretation are given below.
Use:
MMSE is used both for qualifying and quantifying cognitive status of the patents. The total scores and sub scores indicate the severity and areas of deficits.
MMSE is mostly used in Dementia to assess degree, severity and pattern of cognitive deficit and indicative of areas of involvement in all types of dementia. Thus it helps to decide whether anti-Alzheimer’s or other nootropic drugs are indicative. It is also use to assess the degree of progressiveness of the disease, response of drugs and outcome of intervention.
MMSE is also use in Delirium due to any cause to assess its severity, prognosis and outcome.
MMSE is also used in any other neurocognitive disorders for the same purpose.
It is also use in intellectual disability for considering educational placement.
Further related knowledge and skills:
To know name of other tests used for cognitive state assessments and how to use these test
To know lobber functions and features abnormalities in lobar dysfunctions and how to assess lobar functions.
To know the causes of delirium am dementia and how to elicit possible cause in clinical setup
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