Screening for Dementia Made Ridiculously Simple

Cognitive screening for dementia in the hospital and in elderly or medically ill patients, is often done with the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), the mainstay in psychiatric practice. However, the MMSE is somewhat insensitive to subcortical processes affecting cognition, can be influenced by educational level or visuomotor deficits, and cumbersomely requires time (10–15 minutes) and props (paper and pencil). A new, simple 16-item screening battery, the “Sweet 16,” takes 2 to 3 minutes and tests only orientation (8 items), attention (2 digit span items), and memory (3 registration and 3 delayed memory items).

After its development and testing in 774 patients post acute hospitalization, researchers validated the Sweet 16 against the MMSE in a r…