Cognition

The cognitive state of the patient is assessed under the following categories:

• orientation:
  • time e.g. time of day, day of week, season of year
  • place e.g. "Where are you?"
  • person e.g. "What is your name?"
    
    
• concentration:
  • serial 7's - the patient is asked to repeatedly subtract 7 starting with 100
  • list the months of the year in reverse order
    
    
• memory:
  
  
• short-term:
  • ask the patient to repeat a list of digits
    
    
• new information:
  • give the patient an address to remember
  • ask them to repeat it immediately
  • ask them to repeat it after 3 min of conversation
    
    
• recent events:
  • ask about recent events which are known to you with certainty
    
    
• remote events:
  • ask about dates of wars, Prime Ministers etc.

The mini-mental state examination is a good method for assessing the cognitive function, with particular relevance to old-age psychiatry.