Scientists at Saint Louis University have developed a new tool for diagnosing dementia believed to work better than the routinely administered Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE).
SLUMS, or the Saint Louis University Mental Status Examination, supplements the MMSE, takes about seven minutes to administer and is said to be better at catching more mild cognitive programs and at testing more educated patients.
Researchers tested more than 700 patients over age 60 with both tests. While each successfully detected dementia, only SLUMS identified a subset of patients with mild cognitive problems.
Read more: New dementia screening tool detects early cognitive problems missed by commonly used test
On the Web: SLUMS Examination