This is the Medscape Psychiatry Minute. I'm Dr. Peter Yellowlees. Early detection of patients with cognitive impairment is extremely challenging. Now a team of investigators[1] from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have studied whether preclinical disability in the performance of cognitively focused daily living tasks can discriminate between older adults with normal cognitive function and those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The researchers performed secondary analyses of cross-sectional data from a cohort of individuals diagnosed with normal cognitive function or MCI and found that 2 tasks -- shopping and checkbook balancing -- were the most discriminating. They concluded that this is the first demonstration of the discriminative ability of preclinical disability tests to distinguish older adults with MCI from cognitively normal older adults, and suggested that such tasks may be considered when attempting to diagnose MCI or mild neurocognitive disorder in clinical practice and research. From a clinical perspective, this is important and should make us take a careful history of shopping and checkbook balancing in our patients who have suspected dementia. This article is selected from Medscape Best Evidence. I'm Dr. Peter Yellowlees.
