These things can have a profound impact on someone's memory and almost perfectly mimick dementia in serious cases. If the points are lost in the attention section ( repeating back numbers doing serial seven subtraction, and tapping on the letter " a"), This is not as concerning as it usually means the person is distracted, anxious, or stressed. However, if the moca was administered correctly and the patient still fails to remember any of the five words, then this is what is typically seen in the earlier stages of Alzheimer's as well. If the moca was not administered properly and the provider did not review the five words at least two times and ensure that the patient registered the five words in their minds, then their inability to remember the five words 5 minutes later is not very indicative of anything. The next most important five points is in the delayed recall section, but this part is also tricky. These are very important points when assessing for possible Alzheimer's disease because patients tend to lose these points early on in the disease process. This is where you match the pattern with the numbers and letters, you draw a cube, and you draw a clock. The first five points on the moca are assessing visuospatial ability. What is also important on the moca is where the points are lost. If she has a PhD or a master's degree or is just generally an extremely intelligent person, then a 24 moca at the age of 63 would probably be a few points lower than I would anticipate. You say your mother is highly educated now. I have administered over 3,000 mocas and I have certainly observed that people that aren't very educated can score pretty low without having a real dementia process.Īlternatively, people that are very highly educated should score pretty good on the moca. Without seeing your mother's moca there's no way to know if that has happened, but assuming it did a 24 out of 30 is not a terrible score. But it is only great if it's administered correctly and graded correctly. Sometimes other things go well before the things they test for. She can not remember how to work certain appliances any more or remember to take her medication or eat regularly. My MIL can still keep up a fairly lucid conversation and knows who everyone is, but can not tell what day it is or read her calendar any more. Try to have her evaluated again in 6 months and I liked the other suggestion about keeping a journal. Once COVID forced her to stop teaching and taking language classes the dementia came on hard. Keep an eye out for routine changes as that brought on a rapid decline in my MIL. Those tests are heavily speech based so someone with higher level language skills can overcompensate. Your mom's decline is probably only apparent to someone who knows her. People like that are typically good at masking their cognitive dysfunction for a while. She is also highly educated and spoke a few languages.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |