Sunday, December 1, 2013

Few Things To Know About Dementia Rating Scale

By Jack Morgan


There are many people all over the world who suffer from a condition known as dementia. Dementia is a condition that affects people of older ages in the areas of memory loss, behavior, daily routines, and over all health as a result of the affects that dementia has on the human brain.

When it comes to diagnosing patients who have dementia, doctors use something that is referred to as the dementia rating scale. The dementia rating scale is a way to categorize the severity of the affects of the condition on the patients. The first way to test the rating scale of the stage of dementia that the patient has is to test the level of the cognition that the patient is able to utilize regularly.

With the dementia rating scale the scores obtained in various aspects are summed up to arrive at a composite score that can range from 0 up to 3. According to the structure of the model, if the patient gets a composite rating of 0 it means that there are no dementia symptoms. A 0.5 score implies that the system is mild. 1,2,3 scores represent mild, moderate and severe dementia symptoms respectively.

The CDR scale has been commended for its effectiveness in detecting mild impairments. The downside of using the scale is however that it takes time to administer the identified reliance and subjective assessment. The other demerit of the instrument is its relative failure to detect changes over time.

Stage three is a stage where there is also Dementia.There is increased forgetfulness, a slight concentration difficulty, and work performance is decreased. People can get lost regularly and also there is difficulty in finding the words which are right. Normally, there is notice of a Cognitive decline by the person`s loved ones. Average period for this is 7 years before the onset of Dementia.

Some of the testing includes the abbreviated mental test, the clock drawing, the mini-cog, the 6-cit, and the test your memory. Each of these unique tests helps to determine the patient's individual abilities and helps to determine the level of impact that the condition has had on the individual.

There are other tests that help to get a more in-depth look at the impact that the condition has on the patients. Those tests include the general practitioner's assessment of cognition, the memory impairment screen, the mini-memory state exam, the Montreal cognitive assessment, and the Addenbrookes cognitive assessment.

If you know someone who is currently suffering with the effects of the condition that is known as dementia, then it might be best to take your loved one to get screened or assessed to determine the severity of the dementia. The determined dementia rating scale of your loved one could help to ensure that the person being effected by dementia is going to receive the best care.

The PAINAD scale enables the medical practitioner to use its rubric to quantify the severity of pain indicative aspects. The instrument can be used by a medical practitioner to ascertain if certain behaviors are pain related or not. Accurate diagnosis of dementia is critical at any stage of the disease. Administering appropriate care and treatment for patients suffering from Alzheimer begins with an efficient use of the ground breaking dementia rating and diagnosis innovations.




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