Have you ever wondered if your brain was working normally or sub-par? Are you or someone you love at risk for or beginning to experience some degree of cognitive decline? Well a new self-test is now available from Ohio State University that can help you or others you know determine if you/they are doing OK or beginning to slip. And it’s free!
If you work in health care and use the Mini-Mental, SLUMS or a similar cognitive assessment tool, this may be of professional value for you as well.
The test is called the e Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination test, or SAGE. As an Alzheimer’s researcher I learned of this nearly 4 years ago. It seems to take a loooog time for scientific discoveries to make it to mainstream. But this is finally here, and as the name implies, it’s designed to be a “do-it-yourself” type of test that you or the patient can complete in about 15 minutes in the privacy of your/their own home.
Often people with memory problems do worse on tests in a foreign or public setting like a doctor’s office, or clinic. This university validated and standardized self-test can help avoid that typical skewing factor, while maintaining personal privacy and validity. And it can help a person determine if indeed they need to see a doctor. Plus, with it’s 4 different versions it’s a good test for identifying where a person is at and/or to measure treatment related outcomes and progress over time.
According to the research published Feb 5th in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, this a 15-minute at-home test may be able to detect early signs of Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, and cognitive decline.
Developed by Douglas Scharre, M.D., of the Division of Cognitive Neurology at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, it’s a surprisingly simple 12-question pen-and-paper questionnaire which comes in four versions, to assesses:
• Orientation (in time, for example)
• Language and verbal fluency
• Reasoning and computation
• Visuospatial skills
• Executive problem solving and memory
To access or learn more about this test go to:
http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/patientcare/healthcare_services/alzheimers/sage-test/Pages/index.aspx
For a good free reliable online test I would encourage you to also try the test at: http://www.mybraintrainer.com/index.asp?REFCODE=ABETTER28
Simply click on this link and then arrow down to: “Let Us Caculate Your Brain Age And Brain Power.” Do this a couple of times a day for two days before any new intervention, and then monthly thereafter to measure progress online.
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