LSD-4 — Letter and Shape Drawing test

What this tool is and how to interpret its evidence

Published in 2017, LSD-4 is described here as screening / case-finding, cognitive test for delirium for older hospital patients with delirium/dementia comparison groups. The linked study examined it in General / acute hospital. The recorded form contains 4 scored items or observations. The reported administration time is approximately 1-2 min. The catalogue records the published scoring or threshold information as Total 0-4; 3 or less classified abnormal/positive in the 2020 delirium evaluation.

The linked source is Williams OA and colleagues, A simple drawing test for identifying visuospatial executive dysfunction in older people in Psychiatry Research (2017); this catalogue treats it as original/source and earliest DTA study. For LSD-4, the evidence stage is one eligible diagnostic-accuracy study. The reconciled DTA dataset associates 1 eligible study with LSD-4. The earliest listed evaluation used Full neuropsychiatric reference using DSM-IV and/or DRS-R98 ≥15 as its reference standard. The first recorded accuracy result reports sensitivity 74% and specificity 75%; the recorded sample is 180. 2020 delirium evaluation in 180 older medical inpatients; the 2017 paper is the canonical test-development source.

The LSD-4 case-finding role should be kept separate from a full clinical diagnosis and investigation of underlying causes. For LSD-4, no verified public instrument form is recorded; the source article documents the tool but is not a substitute administration form.