The Clock Drawing Test: Diagnostic, Functional, and Neuroimaging Correlates in Older Medically Ill Adults

Abstract

This study evaluated the clock drawing test (CDT), a screening test sensitive to executive function, in 70 elderly psychiatric consultation patients. The CDT was compared to the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) on associations with psychiatric diagnoses, disposition status and radiographic findings. CDT and MMSE were correlated, and scores differed across psychiatric subgroups. In multivariate analysis, only age and CDT predicted disposition status. A lower CDT score correlated with a higher intercaudate ratio, indicating greater caudate atrophy. These findings suggest that the CDT indicates underlying subcortical pathology and deficiencies in executive function important for self-care.

Testing Older Adults for Signs of Age-Related Cognitive Decline: Clock Drawing Test vs.Mini-Mental State Examination

“…In addition, Samton et al (2005) found that MMSE performance and CDT were correlated as anticipated, but CDT was a more sensitive and consistent predictor of disposition compared to the MMSE. Therefore, early screening of cognitive decline to prevent and apply efficient and timely treatments in elderly is very important.…”

A decrease in N-acetylaspartate and an increase in myoinositol in the anterior cingulate gyrus are associated with behavioral and psychological symptoms in Alzheimer's disease

“…CDT is a screening test sensitive to executive function. One study showed that CDT was superior to MMSE for predicting degree of executive function and functional status in an elderly medically ill population [28]. Story-retelling tasks are also useful to diagnose AD, because episodic memory deficits are the hallmark of AD.…”

The Use of the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Clock-Drawing Test for Dementia in a Tertiary Hospital

“…CDT is a multifaceted and a multidimensional measure test which is thought to test the visuoconstructive and the visuospatial skills, the symbolic and the graphomotor representation, the auditory language skills, the hemiattention, the semantic memory, the conceptual abilities, and the executive function, which includes organization, planning, and parallel processing [7,8].…”