The simple test that can spot Alzheimer's in five minutes

By Jenny Hope
Last updated at 10:31 AM on 10th June 2009

Doctors have devised a memory test which doubles the chances of detecting early dementia.

The Test Your Memory (TYM) method is so simple that patients could be taught to do it themselves.

It takes just five minutes to carry out and detects 93 per cent of cases of Alzheimer's, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal online.

This makes it almost twice as effective as the existing test - which is also more complex and takes longer to do - at detecting which people need further investigation.

The TYM test assesses those with memory problems on ten measures, including copying a sentence, calculations, verbal fluency and recall of a copied sentence.

Healthy volunteers gained an average score of 47 out of 50 on the TYM test. Patients with Alzheimer's disease had consistently lower marks, with an average score of 33 out of 50.