MOCA, MMSE at time of diagnosis

CStrope

I've often wondered what other's LO scored when they were finally diagnosed.  My DHs general practitioner had scored him a 20 on the MOCA scale 2 years before actual diagnosis, ( I was not aware of this!) When finally diagnosed he scored a 17 on the MMSE. 

Just curious as to what others' scores were when diagnosis finally happened.

Marta

My husband never had a screening test. He took himself for neurocognitive testing. He scored in the 5th percentile on some subscales. He was a practicing internist at the time. He stated that the diagnoses weren’t coming to him anymore. 

I hadn’t noticed anything amiss. We practiced in the same office and shared patients. 

June45

I do not know what husband's score was.  The neurologist that my husband was referred to spoke English as a second language and I could barely understand him and had to ask him to repeat what he was telling us several times.  I was afraid I was going to aggravate him so sometimes I didn't ask him to repeat if it didn't seem critical.  When he gave my husband the test, I had to repeat the instructions/questions back to my husband. By the time we got out of there, I didn't bother to find out the actual score.  I just know that he didn't do well, and he failed the clock drawing miserably. The diagnosis that the doctor wrote at that time was moderate Alzheimer's.

French

December 2018 Moca=17 (equivalent to MMSE=22)

March 2019 MMSE =20

May 2019 diagnosis 

January 2020 MMSE =15

January 2021 MMSE = 12

So at the diagnosis he was certainly a little under 20.

He seems to loose less now, but when you look at the test, he will loose the next points when he with loose language 

Doityourselfer

I don't know what my husband's MMSE score was when he was diagnosed in 2016 but in 2018 it was 14.  It is now a zero.

Crushed

DW was 12/30  MOCA the last time she saw a neurologist in early 2014.  Neuro confirmed a 2013 diagnosis of Alzheimers

JoseyWales

I don't remember exactly what DH was when diagnosed with MCI. Probably around 24 in 2012.

Late 2015 when there was finally a dementia diagnosis, it was around 21. 

December 2019 - 13 That was the last time it was done in an office. And I felt the doctor was being generous.
Now - probably around 4-5.

Ed1937

My wife was diagnosed three years ago. She had her first and only MMSE last week. She scored a 12. No idea what it was before.

Quilting brings calm

I don’t know  about the initial diagnosis.  That happened when they lived out of state and when the doctors kept denying she had  a UTI. My sister was the one at the appointment where they did the short questionnaire,  They just diagnosed delirium and then dementia and  I never heard a score.  When we got her back in state and in the hospital, she had urosepsis. A few days later, an assessment was done.  I was there for most of the questions( missed the start). The questions went on for several minutes, including an animal naming test.  The hospital neurologist wouldn’t say the words dementia due to the urosepsis.  However, Mom went to rehab when she was released  and the paperwork went with her. The nurse showed it to me( I have medical POA and a HIPPA relase) Her score was 19. That was October 2019. The social worker told  me right before she got released from rehab after 4 weeks that they had done another test and it was a similar score. Still no doctor would say dementia. In early March 2020 she saw a clinician at a geriatric psychiatrist for an intake  and they did the one page test.  The clinician  told me when I asked that she thought Mom had mild memory loss. Mom never went back afterwards as she thought she was depressed  and didn’t want ‘talk therapy’.  Plus the pandemic occurred. In September 2020, an ER doctor told me that was a politically correct term and Mom had mild dementia. She was definitely worse in September than she had been in March.  PCP started using that term also.  She is definitely worse now. We see the PCP again Tuesday because I think we need a current assessment by him and a discussion about the next year.

CStrope

Thank you everyone for your replies.  I guess I just never had any data from anyone I knew to compare it to.  My DH of course still says the test was dumb, and he's fine.

Stuck in the middle

My wife scored 20/30 18 months ago, several years after diagnosis.  She scored 22 a year before that, and I'm sure she would have scored higher at diagnosis in 2017 if the test was given.  

DW saw her doctor after her employer closed up shop.  She found another job, much simpler than the one she had done previously, but was unable to learn its duties.  Her doctor diagnosed AD, and she came home to tell me she had it and what it would mean (progressive memory loss, possible personality changes, etc.)  She had to retire at that time, and of course stopped driving, but was quite functional otherwise.  She was able to read novels, solve puzzles, mess with her many houseplants, and do needlework such as embroidery.  She can't do any of that without help now.

I think the numbers are useful tools for physicians to chart the progression of dementia, but what is more important for us is level of function.  About the time of diagnosis, I began helping her fill her med set every week.  She was OK with the one a day or two a day meds, but a med that was 1/2 tab on Sunday and Thursday and one tab on other days threw her.  Later I began filling the med set for her.  Then I began reminding her to take her meds.  Now I remind her to take them and stand watching until she actually does it, while making sure she takes hers and not mine. 

Crushed

Always remember that it is the "delta" or change that is critical.  This is a test of symptoms.

In 2010 my wife failed the clock drawing test.   This was a 58 YO physician who was world famous in her field of medical computing and held the top position in the field.  She was therefore clearly already cognitively impaired. The "Delta" was she had gone from genius to normal. The question was "why?"   Was it temporary and reversible ? or progressive and permanent? If it was the second it was Alzheimer's.  The statistics were against her but they called it MCI- Amnesiac  because she was so young.   But their faces told me they knew