Published 15 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2825
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2825

Letters

TYM and Alzheimer’s disease

More testing needed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Although the test your memory (TYM) test for detecting Alzheimer’s disease is self administered,¹ it was given out by clinic staff to referred clinic attendees with comparisons provided for defined clinical subgroups. The people filling in the questionnaires had already seen their general practitioner, and were seen immediately afterwards by a clinician who could address any concerns. The danger of calling a test self administered in the title of a paper is that it encourages downloading from the internet and doing it at home without interpretation or support. The diagnosis of dementia requires multidisciplinary assessement, often over a period of time.²

TYM was administered to a comparatively young population (median age under 70) with potentially high educational levels; memory clinic referrals have not been shown to be representative of the general older population. TYM’s advantage over the mini mental state examination (MMSE) is uncertain as the full MMSE receiver operator . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Primary Care Clinical Studies Group, Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network, Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4AA

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