Has anyone done a cognitive test at their doctor's office.?

Sunkist said:
IF there's a legitimate reason for it.. but age alone is not a legitimate reason. It's just another scam too many people are falling for these days.
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I guess it could be a scam if insurance is billed seperatly for a cognitive testing, but I believe mine is simply part of my yearly physical. I don't consider it a scam at all, just a tool.

And you're correct age alone may not warrant the test but seniors are more prone to mental decline. Don't you agree? So your doctor sees you once a year, not daily, how else can they truly get a feel for your mental status?
 
Della said:
Instant fail for me. I never know the date, just never do, never know it's my birthday till someone says something. I lost a job interview 20 years ago over it. I could tell I had the job, she was telling me things like where to put my stuff and I knew I was almost over qualified. Then just before leaving I had to sign and date something. I went er-uh what day is it? She told me the day, but not the month and I went totally blank. There was a long awkward silence and that was it.

Do you ever feel like you have some damaged spot in your brain? I do and that's it.

huh-ew.gif
Image borrowed from Seadoug.
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that's a google image that little girl, it's been around for a long time... :D
 
C50 said:
I do one every year as part of my yearly physical, I think it's a good idea. Too many times us seniors down play or flat out ignore early warning signs of mental decline. Each years cognitive test creates a base for future testing, maybe score a 100% this year but next year you only hit 75%, that would set of some alarms and the doctor should examine more thourghly.
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What can they do to stop mental decline? Why test if no cure? My mother in law is living at a memory care center right now. Cost a lot of money each month and I mean a lot. She has not improved even a little.
 
jlhog said:
What can they do to stop mental decline? Why test if no cure? My mother in law is living at a memory care center right now. Cost a lot of money each month and I mean a lot. She has not improved even a little.
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While there may be no cure it may be motovation for people to get their affairs in order. And there may be steps if taken early, like life style changes or medication, that could slow the progression.

Frankly if I was told today that in a few years I would be in a memory care ward that news would time stamp my expiration date. Few want that life, so the more notice I have the better.
 
C50 said:
I guess it could be a scam if insurance is billed seperatly for a cognitive testing, but I believe mine is simply part of my yearly physical. I don't consider it a scam at all, just a tool.

And you're correct age alone may not warrant the test but seniors are more prone to mental decline. Don't you agree? So your doctor sees you once a year, not daily, how else can they truly get a feel for your mental status?
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I hope I won't lose track of your post, am too ill at the moment to elaborate.. am interested in your viewpoint, though..
 
I've not had that test, but my doctor talks with me for at least 20 minutes during annual physicals. If he believes I'm a step or two off, he'll probably run one of those tests.

I always know the date-ish. The date, location, current president, types of questions are to check for orientation in space and time. If you don't know the exact name of the building you're in, but know you're on the 2nd floor of the medical building on XYZ street in XYZ town, that's fine. Same with being a day or two off on the exact dates. Most doctors aren't looking for gotchas.

My mom performed increasingly poorly on those tests due to vascular dementia and spent the last year of her life in memory care. :cry: She didn't know the current year, nevermind the month or day.
 
I actually requested a cognitive test and MRI about a year ago. My mother got dementia at an early age, and I've been feeling less sharp for the last couple of years - so I wanted to find out if I was in the early stages.

All my tests came out fine, but I still forget why I walked into the kitchen, where I left my car keys, and if I took my blood pressure medication or just thought about taking my blood pressure medication. 🤣

All joking aside...
No doubt, my mind is not the same as it was 10 years ago!
 
I rarely know what day it is. Why do I need to know that when I live at the beach and play all day :giggle:🌴🦭🐬🐳
My neighbor is a nurse. I told her I wondered if I have early onset dementia because I forget things sometimes. She said "that's not possible"...you only get that in your 50's and you're beyond that". Hmm:unsure:... I didn't know that....not that it made me feel any better😜
 
Lara said:
I rarely know what day it is. Why do I need to know that when I live at the beach and play all day :giggle:🌴🦭🐬🐳
My neighbor is a nurse. I told her I wondered if I have early onset dementia because I forget things sometimes. She said "that's not possible"...you only get that in your 50's and you're beyond that". Hmm:unsure:... I didn't know that....not that it made me feel any better😜
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That is a good example of.....Nurses don't know everything. Look this up on a respected online medical source like the Mayo Clinic. or Mass General's on line website. JIMB>
 
An interesting thread. Of course, we all deal with daily requirements, so we do use our minds. But does anyone have a suggestion about good cognition exercises. Something online, or in a booklet perhaps?

Every day, we may all walk around the house and yard, pick up bags of groceries at the market, and operate a vehicle. But none of these are equivalent to some routine of daily exercise. What about exercise for the brain?:unsure:
 
Every year as part of my annual physical. I have passed, so far.

Just to clarify:
Early onset dementia is onset before the age of 65.
Early stage dementia is the first of the three stages of dementia.

Not criticizing any single poster - I’ve seen it in many posts on SF over the years. Just hoping to avoid confusion.
 
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CaliS said:
I actually requested a cognitive test and MRI about a year ago. My mother got dementia at an early age, and I've been feeling less sharp for the last couple of years - so I wanted to find out if I was in the early stages.

All my tests came out fine, but I still forget why I walked into the kitchen, where I left my car keys, and if I took my blood pressure medication or just thought about taking my blood pressure medication. 🤣

All joking aside...
No doubt, my mind is not the same as it was 10 years ago!
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That's me right now. I'm losing nouns, both common and proper nouns.

I'll be talking to someone and at some point have been unable to recall a place name, even the name of some common object. I tell people what is going on and that I will drag the right word out in about 20 minutes. Often it surfaces in less time but nevertheless the brain is slowing down over time. Not surprising because at 83 years of age my whole body is slowing down.

My hearing is deteriorating too which is a good reason to have the hearing aids upgraded/adjusted since our eyes and ears need to be stimulating our brains if we don't want to lose mental acuity.
 
jimintoronto said:
I cheat on the clock face test...I write in the 4 cardinal points at 12 3 6 and 9. Then I fill in the rest of the numbers
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That is not cheating - it is doing it how it works for you. as is remembering the 5 words by making a sentence in your mind. it is a cognitive test - this is using your cognitive abilities to make something work for you.

OP is in Australia - the GP may just like people over a certain age to do a base line test. That policy will vary between places.

But if a person is going to be referred t o some specialists, eg geriatricians, it is a pre requisite that this is done i n GP land first - along with baseline blood tests.

Some posters said they would fail because they wouldn't know today's date - that isnt how it works, A perfect score is 30 - but anything over 25 is within range of normal

so common things like getting date not quite right or not remembering all 5 words might lose you a point or so - but your result is still in normal range
 
I never did one at my doctor's office, but a couple of months ago I did quite a comprehensive one conducted by my Honorary Son #3 for his doctorate class. There were several parts including counting sets of numbers backwards from the way he read them to me. Some of the parts had to do with matching shapes as well as remembering the order of shapes I'd just seen. There was also a word association part. Each segment had to be completed within a certain time frame. He said I did very well. I think he was particularly surprised that I could remember several series of 8 numbers backwards. I couldn't complete matching the puzzle shapes to the pictures shown when it got to 9 pieces to mimic an unusual shape.
 
I've had a cognitive test each year at my Wellness exam.
So far then I have had 6. Each year I've passed. One exam
the doctor gave me 7 words for fun she said. Anyway, then
instead of waiting 3 minutes and ask me to repeat them, she
waiting 5 min. I got 6 of the 7 words correct.
 
My PCP has been giving a form of cognitive test for the past three years. I have to admit that I'm not good at it. They usually give me 5 or 6 things to remember then about 5 minutes or more later asks me to repeat them. In the meantime, they ask me several other questions I'm focusing on and when the get back to the 5 or 6 items they mentioned, I can't remember them all. Am I the only one that can't remember all of the items?
Another thing I can't do is draw a clock and put the time on it. I obviously can draw a clock but for some reason I get puzzled where to put the hands when asked to put a time down. I have no problem reading the time though on a clock. It would be interesting what they put down on my record.
 
hawkdon said:
I've had that for about 3 yrs I think, what irritates me about it is that
my doc/nurse blast out those questions so fast it is no wonder I fail
some part of it, what is the hurry???
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Hawkdon:. The young nurse that gave me the test did ask questions very fast, and when she said to draw the multidimensional
square, she drew it so fast I just lost it. You can't expect a 82 year old to draw as fast as a 22 year old.
 
Cognition is your brain’s ability to process all the information it takes in from your senses. Cognition includes:

Attention skills
Decision-making skills
Judgment
Language
Learning
Reasoning
Remembering
Thinking
Understanding

T dont do bad on most of such such subjects but utterly bomb out on short term memory tests which seems to be the area of interest and discussion in this thread.

Now what were we talking about?
 
TeePee said:
My PCP has been giving a form of cognitive test for the past three years. I have to admit that I'm not good at it. They usually give me 5 or 6 things to remember then about 5 minutes or more later asks me to repeat them. In the meantime, they ask me several other questions I'm focusing on and when the get back to the 5 or 6 items they mentioned, I can't remember them all. Am I the only one that can't remember all of the items?
Another thing I can't do is draw a clock and put the time on it. I obviously can draw a clock but for some reason I get puzzled where to put the hands when asked to put a time down. I have no problem reading the time though on a clock. It would be interesting what they put down on my record.
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I wonder why that is TeePee. :unsure: I bet there's some perfectly logical scientific reason for you not being able to do that. Also, haven't you ever asked them to let you see what's in your records? Some doctor portals now have synopses of what took place during office visits that the patients can review. Mine has that along with my procedures, lab and imaging results.
 
As kid, I watched my Grandmother succumb to Alzheimer's - it was sad and brutal.

So at age 66 more to just satisfy my curiosity, I went and had a Neuropsychological Evaluation done just to set a Baseline.
It turned out fine and no issues.
The Testing took about 4 hours or so. It was quite challenging as the exercises got more difficult. I felt like a Rat In A Maze - ha !

When I graduated High School, I was in the bottom 1/4 quintile of my graduating class... I looked at all my peers and said these guys are all dumbassszzzzzes..... Ha ! 🙄

So after nearly 50 year, for grins I went and had a IQ Test done. Something I had never had done before in my life.

I was relieved to not be in the double digits - Ha 🙃

ms gamboolgal just laughs at me.

In all seriousness, I wanted to the testing to sat a Baseline as Cognitive Decline can sneak up on you.

The results actually made sense to ms gamboolgal and I. But it was interesting to get a professional assessment and report(s).

Not sure if a person can do anything about sliding into Cognitive Decline, Dementia and the dreaded Alzheimer's ?

But I would prefer to know so that we can plan accordingly to protect Assets and Portfolio, etc. for ms gamboolgal and our Daughter and Granddaughter.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I wonder why that is TeePee. :unsure: I bet there's some perfectly logical scientific reason for you not being able to do that. Also, haven't you ever asked them to let you see what's in your records? Some doctor portals now have synopses of what took place during office visits that the patients can review. Mine has that along with my procedures, lab and imaging results.
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I don't have access to doctors notes but I do have access to my lab, xrays, and other of those types of tests results. My PCP hadn't stated any concern about my cognitive tests. I think if she were, she put me on some medication to slow down the progression. I don't know what the deal with my having problems putting the hands in the right spots on the clock. I'm not dyslexic, but it seems like I am kind of when it comes to that. I can visualize the clock and time in my head, I just get confused drawing it correctefly.
 
TeePee said:
I don't have access to doctors notes but I do have access to my lab, xrays, and other of those types of tests results. My PCP hadn't stated any concern about my cognitive tests. I think if she were, she put me on some medication to slow down the progression. I don't know what the deal with my having problems putting the hands in the right spots on the clock. I'm not dyslexic, but it seems like I am kind of when it comes to that. I can visualize the clock and time in my head, I just get confused drawing it correctefly.
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When I go to the doctor, I ask questions about what was done and the results of any testing. I'm blessed because my PCP takes plenty of time with me so I never feel rushed when seeking to get all the answers I need. Maybe you have a mild form of dyslexia. My second husband was dyslexic and didn't realize it until he was in his late 40s when I told him that was what he had.
 
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