Dementia with Lewy bodies - Diagnosing dementia with Lewy bodies

Confirming a diagnosis of dementia can be difficult, particularly when the condition is in its early stages. This is because many of the symptoms of dementia can also be caused by other conditions.

For dementia with Lewy bodies to be diagnosed correctly, you will have a number of tests and assessments, including:

an assessment of your symptoms – for example, whether you have typical symptoms of dementia with Lewy bodies
a full assessment of your mental abilities
a physical examination
a review of the medication you are taking
a range of tests, including blood tests, to rule out other possible causes of your symptoms, such as a vitamin B12 deficiency
brain scans, such as a computerised tomography (CT) scan or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, which can check for signs of a stroke, brain tumour or brain shrinkage – a single photon emission CT (SPECT) scan, which looks at the dopamine system in the brain, can also sometimes help

Some of these tests can be carried out by your GP. Some will be carried out by other specialists, such as a neurologist (an expert in treating conditions that affect the brain and nervous system), an elderly care physician, or a psychiatrist with experience of treating dementia.

Assessing your mental abilities

The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is widely used to help test mental ability.

The MMSE can be used to assess a number of different mental abilities, including:

short- and long-term memory
attention span
concentration
language and communication skills
ability to plan
ability to understand instructions

The MMSE involves a series of tasks, which together carry a maximum score of 30 points. Example tasks include:

memorising a short list of objects and then repeating the list back
correctly identifying the day of the week, the date, or the year

The MMSE is not a test to diagnose dementia, but it's useful for assessing the level of mental impairment a person with dementia may have.