Home

About SASH
-Depression
-Dementia

Services
-Patient/ Family
-Education

Clinical Research

The Staff

Contact SASH

Links

E-Mail

The mini Mental Status Exam is a "gold standard" screening tool for dementia. It does not diagnose dementia but does identify the degree of memory and cognitive problems.

The test takes about 15 - 20 minutes and is a series of questions that measures such things as:

• Orientation
• Calculation
• Recall
• Language skills

The maximum possible score is 30 but it is not uncommon for someone to miss one or two answers and still have normal memory.

People who score between 24 and 28 are believed to have Mild Cognitive Impairment, which is a condition of memory loss more than expected for their age. Research suggests that MCI leads to dementia in 25% of the population.