The Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination as a Screening Tool for Organicity in Psychiatric Patients

Objective: The study explored the efficiency of the Neurobebavioral Cognitive Status Examination (NCSE) in predicting organic pathology in psychiatric patients. Methods: Based on history of neurological disorders, 192 psychiatric patients at a county hospital were assigned to one of two groups according to whether they did or did not have organic mental disorder. Fifty patients were determined to have the disorder, and 136 were determined not to have the disorder. The patients' performance on each of the NCSE's ten scales was rated from 1, indicating average performance, to 4, indicating severe impairment. The scores were added together to form a composite index score, with a range from 10 to 40. Composite scores for the two groups were compared. Results: A composite index score of 13 was optimal for discriminating between patients with organic mental disorder and those without the disorder. At this cutoff level, the test bad a sensitivity of .72 and specificity of. 73. Conclusions: The NCSE can be useful in screening for organicity in a psychiatric population. However, psychiatric patients without organic mental disorder can be expected to demonstrate some impairment on one or more of the NCSE's ten scales.