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Figure I

Functional Assessment Staging of Alzheimer’s Disease. (FAST)©

by  Dr. Barry Reisberg        

Stage              Skill level       

1.    

No difficulties, either subjectively or objectively.

2.    

Complains of forgetting location of objects.  Subjective word finding difficulties.     

3.   

Decreased job functioning evident to co-workers; difficulty in traveling to new locations.  Decreased organizational capacity.*

4.   

Decreased ability to perform complex tasks (e.g., planning dinner for guests), handling personal finances (forgetting to pay bills), difficulty marketing, etc.

5.    

Requires assistance in choosing proper clothing to wear for the day, season, or occasion.  

6a. 

Difficulty putting clothing on properly without assistance.

b.  

Unable to bathe properly; e.g., difficulty adjusting bath water temperature)  occasionally or more frequently over the past weeks.*

c. 

Inability to handle mechanics of toileting (e.g., forgets to flush the toilet, does not wipe properly or properly dispose of toilet tissue)  occasionally or more frequently over the past weeks.*

d. 

Urinary incontinence, occasional or more frequent. 

e.  

Fecal Incontinence, (occasional or more frequently over the past week).

7a.  

Ability to speak limited to approximately a half dozen different words or fewer, in the course of an average day or in the course of an intensive interview.

  b.  

Speech ability limited to the use of a single intelligible word in an average day or in the course of an interview (the person may repeat the word over and over.

c.  

Ambulatory ability lost (cannot walk without personal assistance).

d.  

Ability to sit up without assistance lost (e.g., the individual will fall over if there are no lateral rests [arms] on the chair).

 e.  

Loss of the ability to smile.

f. 

Loss of the ability to hold up head independently.  

                  


©1984 by Barry Reisberg, M.D. All rights reserved.
*Scored primarily on the basis of information obtained from a knowledgeable informant and/or caregiver.   
₁Reisberg, B. Functional Assessment Staging (FAST). Psychopharmacology Bulletin. 1988:24: 653-659.                     

 

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