A - 115 Do Patients with Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment Perform Differently on the Clock Drawing Test?

Abstract

The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is an effective screening tool for assessing cognitive dysfunction. Many studies have examined differences in CDT performance between individuals with dementia and normal controls. The current study expands on this research by comparing individuals with dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We utilized the ten-point scoring system created by Libon and colleagues (1996) as we were interested in looking at differences in error type. Data were retrospectively collected from a sample of patients (n = 59, mean age = 76.8, mean education = 14.8years, 45.8% MCI, 54.2% dementia) seen at a private practice in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Patients with a history of moderate-to-severe TBI, severe psychiatric history, or undergoing re-evaluation were excluded. Mann-Whitney U tests did not reveal a statistically significant difference in total CDT errors between dementia and MCI groups across command and copy conditions. There was no statistically significant difference between groups on error type (graphomotor, hand/number placement, executive control) on either the command or copy condition, with one exception. The dementia group (mean rank = 32.63) made significantly more copy condition graphomotor errors than the MCI group (mean rank = 24.96), U = 296, p = 0.046, r = -0.26. Our results demonstrate that CDT scores in patients with dementia and MCI are not significantly different. As a screening tool, CDT errors are suggestive of cognitive impairment, however, to achieve greater clarity in degree of impairment and presumed etiology, additional comprehensive cognitive assessment is needed.