diagnosis

Here are a few sections of the letter I received this morning from the Consultant Psychiatrist. He brought his visit forward by a couple of weeks, since Mum was driving everyone crazy about her appointment on the 30th.

"..a pleasant lady, who has only partial insight into her problems. She scored 22/30 in MMSE* with 2/5 in orientation to time, 1/3 in recall section, 2/5 in attention and concentration, and 8/9 in language. There seems to be global impairment of her cognitive abilities. Her CT scan shows both atrophic and vascular changes..."

"I can conclude that she is suffering from mixed pathology dementia, mild to moderate in degree..."

"I gather that her Son is looking at supervised residential care and I think that it is a step in the right direction..."

It's interesting to have the breakdown of Mum's scores. Her 8/9 in language explains why she fools casual acquaintances so successfully.

*Mini Mental State Examination