New Computerised Self test for Alzheimer's Disease

Rex Cannon, an adjunct research assistant professor of psychology at UT Knoxville, and Dr. John Dougherty, an associate professor in the UT Graduate School of Medicine, worked with a team of researchers to develop a Computerised Self Test (CST) for early detection of Alzheimer's disease.

The impetus for the test came from data showing that 60 percent of Alzheimer's cases are not diagnosed in the primary care setting, and that those delays lead to missed treatment opportunities.

"Early detection is at the forefront of the clinical effort in Alzheimer's research, and application of instruments like CST in the primary care setting is of extreme importance," said Cannon.

The CST is a brief, interactive online test that works to asses various impairments in functional cognitive domains -- in essence, it's a "fitness test" of sorts for the basic functions of thinking and processing information that are affected by Alzheimer's and milder forms of cognitive impairment.

Cannon and Dougherty's research, published in the April issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and in an early online edition of the journal, showed that the CST was substantially more effective and more accurate in detecting the presence of Alzheimer's and other forms of cognitive impairment in patients than other existing tests.

The new CST claims to have a 96 percent accuracy rate, compared to 71 percent and 69 percent for the tests currently in use.