Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jul 2005
Multicenter Study Comparative StudyWhich mini-mental state exam items can be used to screen for delirium and cognitive impairment?
Cognitive impairment is common in palliative care patients, but it is frequently undetected. The clinical consequence is that psychiatric states such as delirium, which often present with cognitive impairment, are inadequately treated. ⋯ Cases of cognitive impairment are considered indicated by an MMSE score of less than 24 of the total 30. We found that caseness could be fairly accurately screened by using four of the original 20 MMSE items, and that a six-item questionnaire further greatly improved the discrimination.