SLUMS
ValidatedSaint Louis University Mental Status Examination (SLUMS)
60+ yearsClinician~10 min18 questions
Clinician use. Administer the SLUMS from the official paper form (download from Saint Louis University) and record the patient's performance on each item. Watch the SLU training video before first use. Item 4 (registering the five objects) and the story in item 11 are read aloud as printed below; the clock (item 9) and the figures (item 10) require the paper form.
Report details · optional
Shown on the report and stored with the screening record. Use initials or a code, not full names.
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About this screener — evidence, source, alternatives
An 11-question bedside test of orientation, recall, attention, calculation, verbal fluency, number span, clock drawing, visuospatial recognition and story recall, scored out of 30. Cut-offs differ for people with and without a high-school education. The clinician administers it from the official form and records each result here; this page scores it.
Evidence · validated
Validated in 702 veterans (mean age 75) at the St. Louis VA GRECC classified by DSM-IV as normal, mild neurocognitive disorder or dementia. The SLUMS and MMSE performed comparably for dementia, and the SLUMS had better ROC curves than the MMSE for mild neurocognitive disorder in both education groups (Tariq et al., 2006).
Free alternative to
- Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE-2) · PAR
Paid, copyrighted cognitive screen; the SLUMS is the free 30-point alternative. - Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) · MoCA Cognition
Requires paid training and certification; the SLUMS covers similar domains for free.
Source & licence
Tariq SH, Tumosa N, Chibnall JT, Perry MH III, Morley JE. Comparison of the Saint Louis University mental status examination and the mini-mental state examination for detecting dementia and mild neurocognitive disorder — a pilot study. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2006;14(11):900–910. Developed by Saint Louis University with the St. Louis VA Medical Center GRECC.
Licence: Free exam from Saint Louis University (with the St. Louis VA GRECC); health care and social service professionals may administer it after watching the SLU training video
Official form: https://www.slu.edu/medicine/internal-medicine/geriatric-medicine/aging-successfully/-pdf/slums-form.pdf. Questions: aging@slu.edu. Not for people whose cognitive dysfunction is due to conditions such as traumatic brain injury, developmental disability or schizophrenia.
Official source ↗