Is a widely used and validated screening tool developed by W. Breitbart for delirium in cancer patients to measure the severity of delirium, and it reflects all the main diagnostic criteria for delirium, as well as the symptoms of delirium, according to the DSM IV of the American Psychiatric Association .

The MDAS is structured as a 10-item, 4-point clinician-rated scale (possible range 0–30) designed to quantify the severity of delirium in medically ill patients.

This instrument measures relative impairment in domains itemized as follows: 1, awareness; 2, orientation; 3, short-term memory; 4, digit span; 5, attention capacity; 6, organizational thinking; 7, perceptual disturbance; 8, delusions; 9, psychomotor activity; and 10, sleep–wake cycle.

Items are rated on a 4-point scale from 0 (none) to 3 (severe) depending on the level of impairment, rendering a maximum possible score of 30.
A score of 13 has been recommended as a cut-off for establishing the diagnosis of delirium with a sensitivity of 70.59% and a specificity of 93.75%.

Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale (MDAS)

Fadul N, Kaur G, Zhang T, Palmer L, Bruera E. Evaluation of the memorial delirium assessment scale (MDAS) for the screening of delirium by means of simulated cases by palliative care health professionals Support Care Cancer 2007;15:1271-1276.
Breitbart W, Rosenfeld B, Roth A, Smith MJ, Cohen K, Passik S. The memorial delirium assessment scale. J Pain Symptom Manage 2007;13:128-137.