Table 3. Diagnostic Scoring Aid (DSA) results.

Profiles of 30 patients attending a specialist clinic with memory secondary to neurological disorders (ND) – this includes neurodegenerative dementias and mild cognitive impairment due to likely underlying neurodegenerative aetiology or functional memory disorder (FMD). 3a: Items rated in all encounters / 3b: Items only rated in encounters also involving an accompanying person (AP).

For a full description of the items see supplementary appendix. Some items were unratable because a particular question was not asked (eg. “who is most concerned?”).

a
Item	Description*	A: Typical of ND	B: Typical of FMD	Number of ND cases categorized A/B** (n=15)	Number of FMD cases categorized A/B** (n=15)	Difference ND versus FMD (p-value)
1	Is the patient accompanied	Yes	No	14/1	6/9	p=0.003
2	Who is most concerned?	Others	Patient themselves	6/1	0/9	p=0.0008
3	Specific example of memory failure	No or partial / incomplete answer or offers a general / routine problem	Detailed and specific response about a recent occurrence	11/0	1/11	p<0.0001
4	Ability to recall recent episodic memory during interaction	Patient unable to recall earlier talk	Patient able to recall earlier talk ("Like I said")	11/3	0/8	p=0.001
5	Responding to compound questions	Unable to attend to different parts of compound questions	Can attend to different parts of compound questions	7/1	3/7	p=0.02
6	Prevalence of "I don't know" verbal responses	Indicates recall-based problems	Response to unexpected questions	11/1	1/14	p<0.0001
7	Patients' elaborations and length of turns	Short, 'literal' answers	Long responses, that provide extra detail	9/6	0/11	p=0.002
8	Repetition	More frequent	Less frequent	10/3	1/11	p=0.001
9	Production of talk	Struggle to reply to questions, communication difficulties	Able to provide answers when asked	7/2	1/13	p=0.001

b
Item	Description*	A: Typical of ND	B: Typical of FMD	Number of ND cases categorized A/B** (n=14)	Number of FMD cases categorized A/B** (n=6)	Difference ND versus FMD (p-value)
10	Main interactional contribution/role of the AP	AP acts as patient's representative or spokesperson	AP’s role limited to confirmation checks and second opinions	9/1	1/5 n = 6	p=0.008
11	Presence of head-turning sign (excluding verbal "I don't know" replies)	Patient defers answering to AP by turning to them	Able to answer most questions, turn for confirmation only	10/4	3/3	n. s.
12	Disagreements between patient and AP	Present	Not present	13/1	2/4	n. s.
13	Word searches	Displays 'word search' difficulties during consultation, AP provides 'missing' information	Report 'word search' difficulties in the past but does not display ‘word search’	3/1	3/3	n. s.
14	Responding to personal questions	Evidence of difficulties answering these questions	Can answer these questions relatively easily	6/5	0/6	n. s.