Estate Planning

Cognitive Screening Tools

By Hull and Hull LLP

In the course of reviewing medical records in advance of estate litigation, one will encounter a wide variety of cognitive screening tools used to identify cognitive impairment. A handful of these tools are described here:

• Confusion Assessment Method (CAM): an ICU assessment tool used to detect the presence or absence of delirium. A CAM assessment is usually carried out once every 8-12 hours (once per nursing shift). Results are presented as either ‘CAM-positive', or ‘CAM-negative', indicating the presence or absence of delirium, respectively.
• Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE): a quantitative measure of cognitive status in adults. Despite its well-documented limitations, the MMSE is the most widely used standardized cognitive screening test in both clinical practice and research. Scores (out of a maximum 30 points) are paired with an associated level of impairment, i.e. no impairment, mild impairment, moderate impairment or severe impairment.
• The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA): a rapid cognitive screening instrument used to detect mild cognitive impairment. This user-friendly tool assesses attention and concentration, executive functions (these are the high-level abilities that control more basic abilities and behaviours), memory, language, conceptual thinking, visuoconstructional skills, calculation and orientation. Studies have shown the MoCA to be far more sensitive than the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) in its ability to detect mild cognitive impairment.

There are dozens of other cognitive screens in use including the Mini-Cog, the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS), the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), the Memory Impairment Screen (MIS), and the recently published Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE). In the context of a dispute regarding testamentary capacity, cognitive screening results are valuable for the estate practitioner, in that they provide tangible, measurable, time-sensitive information regarding the testator's cognitive functioning, and serve as a tool for assessing the progression of the impairment.

Jennifer Hartman, guest blogger
 

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).