Brief Interview For Mental Status (BIMS)

Each of the seven items that BIMS consists of, is awarded a number of points ranging from 0 to 3. The higher the score, the lower the impairment to the cognitive response. Scores closer to 0 indicate severe cognitive impact whilst scores closer to 15 indicate an intact cognitive response:

BIMS score            Interpretation

0 - 7                         Severe cognitive impact

8 - 12                       Moderate impairment

13 - 15                      Intact cognitive response

In some cases, due to extreme frailty, hearing impairment or lack of interaction during the assessment, the result may not accurately reflect the cognitive status of the patient.

Between subsequent evaluations, a decline in score of even 1 to 2 points shows a notable mental status change.

This type of evaluation is an initial one and should be followed by more specialized investigations, especially for dementia diagnosis.

The BIMS is correlated with results from other scales such as the MMSE (Mini-Mental State Exam). If the elderly patient also displays behavioural symptoms linked to depression, they may be referred to take the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS).

Very serious and time abrupt changes in behaviour and mental status (e.g. delirium) may indicate an underlying condition.

Saliba D, Buchanan J, Edelen MO, Streim J, Ouslander J, Berlowitz D, Chodosh J. MDS 3.0: brief interview for mental status. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2012; 13(7):611-7.

Mansbach WE, Mace RA, Clark KM. Differentiating levels of cognitive functioning: a comparison of the Brief Interview for Mental Status (BIMS) and the Brief Cognitive Assessment Tool (BCAT) in a nursing home sample. Aging Ment Health. 2014; 18(7):921-8.