A Case Study of an Octogenarian identified with Dementia by Diagnostic Application of Projective Drawing Tests

Abstract

Dementia is a serious form of cognitive impairment that is currently untreatable and can decline rapidly over time. Beginning with mild cognitive impairment, such as memory loss, poor judgment, difficulty in task performance, misplacement of things, disorientation, language problems and loss of initiative, the severity of cognitive loss becomes gradually more apparent. In fact, dementia impacts five key cognitive functions: attention, executive function, memory, language, and processing speed. In this case study of a female Singaporean octogenarian was suspected to suffer from dementia. The authors administered three projective drawing tests – i.e., the Human-Figure Drawing Test for Cognitive Impairment (HFD-CI), the Human-Figure Drawing Test for Dementia Screening (HFDT-DS), and the Clock Drawing Test (CDT) – and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in their dementia identification procedure to make an immediate referral to a geriatric psychiatrist for the client’s mental health follow-up.