An Ordinal Functional Assessment Tool for Alzheimer's-Type Dementia

Abstract

The FAST assessment instrument may assist clinicians in accomplishing the following sometimes difficult tasks in the assessment of the aged patient with cognitive impairment. • Rapid determination of whether the nature of the dementing process is consistent with uncomplicated senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type, both in terms of its present manifestation as well as in terms of the evolution of the illness process. • Staging, in a relatively detailed fashion, of even the most severe patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type. • Differentiation of the various complications of Alzheimer's disease from the natural progression of the illness. • Accomplishment of all of the preceding tasks easily enough that preliminary determinations about diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and complicating factors can be made on the basis of the information provided by family members.