Objective screening tools to assess cognitive impairment and depression

Cognitive impairments and depression are relatively common in the older population. They result from many causes and negatively impact functional rehabilitation. Rehabilitation professionals should be able to identify and quantify the presence of cognitive impairment and depression in older adults and understand their impact on function. This article discusses the variety of objective scales available to the rehabilitation practitioner and details the use of three scales: the Clock Drawing Test, the Mini-Mental State Examination, and the Geriatric Depression Scale.