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American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias logoLink to American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias
. 2007 Dec;22(6):468–473. doi: 10.1177/1533317507307173

The Mini-Mental State Examination in Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia and Primary Progressive Aphasia

Jason E Osher 1, Alissa H Wicklund 2, Alfred Rademaker 3, Nancy Johnson 4, Sandra Weintraub 5
PMCID: PMC10846276  PMID: 18166606

Abstract

There is little information regarding the usefulness of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for tracking progression of non-Alzheimer's disease dementias. This study examined the utility of the MMSE in capturing disease severity in the behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and primary progressive aphasia (PPA), 2 nonamnestic clinical dementia syndromes. Retrospective data from 41 bvFTD and 30 PPA patients were analyzed. bvFTD patients' change in MMSE scores over time was significantly correlated with change over time on a measure of activities of daily living. In contrast, PPA patients' MMSE scores showed greater decline over time than scores on the activities of daily living scale. Results suggest that the MMSE score, heavily dependent on language skill, overestimates dementia severity in PPA patients. However, the score may be a more accurate measure of functional impairment in bvFTD due to the influence of their executive function and attentional deficits on MMSE performance.

Keywords: Mini-Mental State Examination, frontotemporal dementia, primary progressive aphasia, activities of daily living

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Contributor Information

Jason E. Osher, Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, Nowrthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Nowrthwestern Universtiy Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, jason-osher@northwestern.edu .

Alissa H. Wicklund, Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, Nowrthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.

Alfred Rademaker, Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, Nowrthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, Department of Preventative Medicine Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.

Nancy Johnson, Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, Nowrthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Nowrthwestern Universtiy Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.

Sandra Weintraub, Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, Nowrthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Nowrthwestern Universtiy Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, Department of Neurology, Nowrthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.

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