|
medpundit |
||
 |
 |
|
Wednesday, August 28, 2002In the California Verbal Learning Test, a long-standing method of measuring memory, a list of 15 simple words such as cat, dog and mouse are read to the subjects, who are asked to repeat the words they can remember. The process is repeated five times. They are then read a different list of 15 words and asked to repeat the process. "The second list is just in there to screw them up." Following that, the test administrator asks the subject to remember as many of the words on the initial list as possible. After a 20-minute break, the subject is asked to recall words from the first list. I’m not sure I could pass that test, and I doubt it’s all that great a predictor of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a diagnosis of exclusion. You can spot a trend for declining mental function in a person, but you can’t diagnose it as Alzheimer’s until you’ve ruled out other explanations - depression, multiple small strokes, nutritional deficiencies, hypothyroidism, to name a few. It’s always tempting to reach out for a simple test to classify someone, but the truth is that mental function can be affected by a multitude of ills, and no one test can give a simple, easy diagnosis. posted by Sydney on 8/28/2002 07:35:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|
