ABSTRACT
The least common mode of presentation of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is poor performance on a brief cognitive test, such as the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE; Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975) during routine screening of elderly persons in the community. The Canadian Consensus Conference on Dementia (CCCD; Patterson et al., 2001), after careful consideration of available evidence, has ruled against routine screening for cognitive impairment in the absence of memory or functional complaints from the patient or the family. On the other hand, health professionals should maintain a high index of suspicion for dementia in older people and follow up on concerns about functional decline and memory loss expressed by the patient, the family, or both, as observed during routine visits. These concerns are discussed in the following section.
