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J. Wesson
Ashford, M.D.,Ph.D
MemTrax (Cognitive Screen
- on-line)
Academic papers on MemTrax and Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer
Evaluation Forms
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Hypotheses
Dr. Ashford
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AAGP03
JWA Slides |
MEDAFILE is a web-site that
provides medical information files to individuals and to
medical practitioners (physicians and other health care
providers). The focus is memory impairment, dementia, and
Alzheimer's disease.
The first issue is to lead a healthy life style to delay brain aging.
The second issue is to have regular medical evaluations, which should be
yearly after age 65 as part of the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit.
The third issue is to recognize a significant memory problem.
The fourth issue is to have a full medical evaluation of the problem.
The fifth issue is to follow the best medical and social recommendations.
MEDAFILE MANUAL for ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE - for
families, clinicians, and researchers: This
developing manual is dedicated to providing useful information
on Alzheimer's disease, forms for the evaluation of
patients with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia,
diagnostic recommendations, management suggestions, and
etiological hypotheses.
Cognitive screening tests should be part of routine medical care after age 50 years.
A simple and fun approach to cognitive screening, which includes a powerful memory assessment,
is the MemTrax on-line memory test.
The MemTrax test is fun to take, and it can be taken frequently.
Taking a MemTrax test once every 3 months can track memory changes over time.
See here for some examples and publications.
The Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA)
provides
a
National Memory Screening Program, which includes free, confidential memory screenings throughout the country on an ongoing basis.
For a discussion of the assessment for cognitive impairment and Alzhemer's disease see ARTICLE AND BOOK CHAPTER ON HOW TO DIAGNOSE ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
Ashford, J.W., Schmitt, F.A., Kumar, V. Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease.
Psychiatric Annals, 26(5):262-268. 1996.
Ashford JW, Schmitt FA, Smith CJ, Kumar V, Askari N. Assessment of Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's Disease, and Other Forms of Dementia. In: Ethnicity and the Dementias. G. Yeo, L.A. Gardner, D. Gallagher-Thompson, eds, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 2019.
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If the on-line screening or in-person test is positive, then there should be a path to a recommendation for further assessment.
This site provides clinically useful scales for assessing mild neurocognitive impairment associated with such clinical conditions as Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, fronto-temporal dementia, etc., that can be used for screening, initial assessment, or follow-up for either natural course or potential modification by interventions.
The scales below were derived from the Global Assessment of Dementia scales published here:
Ashford JW, Kumar V, Barringer M, Becker M, Bice J, Ryan N, Vicari S.
Assessing Alzheimer severity with a global clinical scale.
Int Psychogeriatr. 1992 Summer;4(1):55-74.
These scales were discussed in a paper recommending regular screening (click):
Now is the Time to Improve Cognitive Screening and Assessment for Clinical and Research Advancement. By: Ashford JW, Schmitt FA, Bergeron MF, Bayley PJ, Clifford JO, Xu Q, Liu X, Zhou X, Kumar V, Buschke H, Dean M, Finkel SI, Hyer L, Perry G. in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease. 2022;87(1):305-315.
The scales below were published as supplementary material.
These scales are similar to numerous other widely published and validated scales.
For discussion, see this PowerPoint slide set
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ASSESSMENT SCALES for supporting diagnoses of COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT
Activities of Daily Living scale - combines Lawton and basic, updated 2021
Brief Neurocognitive Assessment. Updated from Brief Alzheimer Screen (BAS)
DSM-5 Neurocognitive Inventory. Update of 1992 form, references other studies
These tests need to be integrated with other clinical information for diagnostic interpretation.
For additional tests, including mood and behavior evaluations, see this link.
For the Brain Health Self Assessment scale, see this link.
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There are important health measures for preventing memory loss and dementia:
TOP 10
TREATMENTS for preventing Alzheimer's disease (under
development) |
Site constructed and maintained
by: J.
Wesson Ashford, M.D., Ph.D.
Electronic mail address: washford@medafile.com
Forms and papers provided on this site may be
copyrighted by their authors or the publishers.
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copyright by J. Wesson Ashford, M.D., Ph.D., to retain rights for
use.
Last update:
07/09/2022 |
