Vox: Trump aced the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Heres what that means.

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he Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoCa, is a tool designed to spot the symptoms of dementia that come with a neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. According to Jackson, Trump requested a cognitive test during his annual physical, and is the first president to have undergone one.

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It’s a pretty useful tool to quickly assess dementia symptoms, or to assess cognitive functioning after a stroke. A 2007 study in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry found the Montreal Cognitive Assessment correctly detected 94 percent of patients with mild cognitive impairment, performing better than another test of cognitive wherewithal. It’s been shown to be helpful in identifying symptoms in Parkinson’s patients, and in those who have suffered a stroke.

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It’s also not the only, or necessarily best, way to assess cognitive decline. Other tests recommended by the Alzheimer’s Association take into account information from family members who can report whether the person’s cognitive ability has been deteriorating over time. “There is no single cognition assessment tool that is considered to be the gold standard,” the Alzheimer Association reports in its guidelines for physicians. The Alzheimer Association does highlight three tests most suitable for quick assessment (read more about those here), and the MoCa is not among them (a few limitations being that it takes longer than five minutes to administer, and its a relatively new tool for the field.)

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During the press conference where Jackson explained the results, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta (a medical doctor) did point out that the test cannot always find the earliest stages of dementia, like personality or mood changes.


https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/1/16/16899150/trump-montreal-cognitive-assement-ronny-jackson