Cognistat

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Cognistat is a quick screening test that checks five areas of thinking: language, construction, memory, calculations, and reasoning. It used to be called the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination (NCSE). It was first described in 1987 and was compared with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in people with brain conditions.

Cognistat also looks at medical, psychiatric, and medication factors that can affect test results, so scores are interpreted in context. There are norms for adolescents and adults in three age groups: 60–64, 65–74, and 75–84.

The test has been translated into eight languages: Spanish, French, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Hebrew, Swedish, and Norwegian. It is widely used by neuropsychologists in North America. More than 150 studies describe its use in stroke, dementia, traumatic brain injury, major psychiatric disorders, and substance abuse.

Many professionals use Cognistat, including internists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, physiatrists, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, speech and occupational therapists, and clinicians in nursing homes.

A web-based version called the Cognistat Assessment System (CAS) was released in 2010. CAS runs on Windows and macOS, guides the examiner during testing, provides cautions, and automatically creates a graphic profile of results. It notes the patient’s medications, offers interpretation cautions, and suggests follow-up testing. CAS also helps clinicians consider the evolving medical and social context to help plan treatment and rehabilitation.