Rambling could be a sign of dementia

UNITED STATES: Scientists say that people who become more longwinded may be displaying an early sign of Alzheimer’s, and they have devised a test to see if they can diagnose them.

Most tests for dementia look at memory, for instance testing the recall of single words.

Dr Janet Cohen Sherman, from Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, decided to look instead at whole sentences.

Sixty-eight people were involved in her study. Twenty-two were healthy individuals, 24 were healthy older individuals and 22 people had mild cognitive impairment, but had not reached the stage where dementia severely affected their lives.

They were given three words, such as stove, kettle, water, and told to use them in a sentence.

Sherman said the researchers saw significant differences among those in the early stages of dementia.

‘‘Their speech was very different. They were much less concise in conveying information, the sentences they produced were much longer, they had a hard time staying on point, and I guess you could say they were much more roundabout in getting their point across,’’ she said.

‘‘The healthy older individuals could give us a very concise sentence with the three words, and so could the healthy young, but the individuals with mild cognitive impairment struggled.’’

After the recent failure of longawaited Alzheimer’s drugs, scientists are increasingly turning to early detection.

However, Sherman said people should not worry just because they are rambling. Some people were naturally long-winded: the crucial thing was decline.