[Five-word test: insufficiently sensitive but very specific for organic memory disorders].
OBJECTIVE
The "five-word test', derived from the Grober and Buschke test, is an easy and rapid tool to distinguish between organic disorders of memory encoding and apparent memory deficits due to inefficient information retrieval strategies. Its metrological characteristics require specification.


METHODS
Subjects were classified as demented or non-demented according to DSM IV and NINCDS-ARDA criteria after a dementia assessment and a neuropsychological assessment. All subjects took the five-word test.


RESULTS
In all, 142 patients took this test (81 with and 61 without dementia). It was insufficiently sensitive: 80.2% for a score of 10/10 and 60.49% for 9/10. Its specificity, however, was excellent: 100% for scores below 9/10. It also helped identify mistakes due to organic memory disorders, in the form of "intrusion" in the various tests.


CONCLUSIONS
Although this test showed a lack of sensitivity for detecting dementia or organic memory disorders, it remains a useful tool: a pathologic score does permit affirmation of those diagnoses.


CONCLUSIONS
The practical qualities (simplicity and rapidity of administration) of the five-word test make it an essential tool in the evaluation by geriatricians or general practitioners of cognitive disorders in the elderly.
Jacus
Jean-Pierre
JP
Centre Hospitalier du Val d'Ariège, Foix (09). jp.jacus@worldonline.fr
Hamon-Vilcot
Brigitte
B
Basset-Berges
Marie-France
MF
Campistron
Evelyne
E
Malick
Christine
C
Baud
Michel
M
D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003704:Dementia / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014825:Vocabulary; D014888:Wechsler Scales