Frequently Asked Questions

WHY CAN'T PATIENTS SELF-TEST WITH THE TYM?

The TYM test is designed as a screening test for Alzheimer's disease not as a diagnostic test. There may be many reasons why a patient scores poorly – for example poor vision. A health professional can decide the reason for a poor score and arrange appropriate assessments. Alzheimer's disease should be diagnosed by a Doctor with experience in seeing patients with memory problems after appropriate tests – usually including a brain scan. There are many pitfalls. A brief test is no substitute for a proper professional assessment.

DO I NEED TO SUPERVISE THE TYM TEST?

Patients need to be supervised by a Doctor, Nurse,or other Health Professional. Patients need to be sat in a quiet, private area away from clocks, newspapers etc. Many patients need minimal help but the supervisor needs to be prepared to help if necessary. The supervisor needs to ensure that they do not turn back the sheet.

IS THE TYM TEST A DIAGNOSTIC TEST FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE?

No, it is a standardized method of assessing a patient's cognition. There are many reasons why patient will score poorly on the TYM for example poor concentration. A low TYM score does not mean a patient has Alzheimer's but a reason for the poor score needs to be sought. A low score on the TYM test can support a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

I’VE JUST DISCOVERED THAT A TYM SHEET HAS BEEN SPOILED. I NEED TO DO IT AGAIN BUT IF I USE THE SAME TEST IT WILL BE INVALID.

We are developing a TYM B, this is a very similar test but uses different questions. It has not yet been validated but should give a reasonable view of what the patient would have scored on the TYM test.

HOW MUCH HELP SHOULD I OFFER THE PATIENT TO COMPLETE THE TYM?

Your aim as the TYM tester is to maximize the patient's score without doing the TYM for them. The patients who fill every section out by themselves are best left alone. If a patient has for some reason left out a whole section - for example copying the sentence then please point this out to them. They will lose a point for help given but will gain 2 for a correct copy. If it is clear that unless you lead the patient through the TYM they will score very badly then please do this and fill in the form for them if need be.

HOW DO I SCORE THE TYM?

Please use the TYM scoring sheet which you can download. If you need a more rigorous scoring system then please download it. If you have a problem despite this then do let us know – the scoring sheets won't cover every situation. Please see the video about scoring the TYM test.

CAN I USE THE TYM TEST IN PATIENTS WITH PHYSICAL PROBLEMS SUCH AS A STROKE?

Yes, you can but you may well need to fill in the TYM test for them and be adaptable. The TYM score and the pattern of problems will give you useful information but cannot be directly compared to the control TYM scores, normal cut-offs etc.

DOES THE TYM TEST DETECT MCI – MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT?

The usual pattern of TYM scoring in amnestic MCI is for the patient to score very well on all tests except recall of the learnt sentence. The overall scores overlap with normal controls. If you suspect a patient has MCI and does well on the TYM test or the ACE-111 then you can use the TYM-MCI.

DOES THE TYM DETECT NON-ALZHEIMER'S DEMENTIAS?

Yes, patients with Non-Alzheimer's dementias scored an average of 39/50 in the our study and 80% were detected by the TYM test. The diseases tested were: Behavioural Variant FTD, Semantic Dementia, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Progressive Non-fluent Aphasia, Corticobasal syndrome, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Posterior Cortical Atrophy and Vascular Dementia. Much more detail on these studies is available in the original paper:

1. Brown J.; Wiggins J.; Lansdall C.J. et al. Test Your Memory: diagnostic evaluation of patients with non-Alzheimer dementias. J Neurol2019https://doi.org/10.1007/soo45-019-09447-1.

IS THE TYM TEST AVAILABLE IN OTHER LANGUAGES?

Currently the TYM test has been translated into over 20 different languages and has been validated in many different countries. These include many European languages, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese. To see these validations please enter the relevant language and the words TYM into a search engine such as Google Scholar.