RAMBLING and long-winded anecdotes could be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers in the US found that people suffering from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) - a precursor to dementia - tend to speak in a more rambling way.
In a recent study the scientists behind the work found that taking longer to choose the right word was linked to MCI.
Lead researcher Janet Cohen Sherman from Massachusets General Hospital said the findings could lead to a test to predict if a patient is at risk of Alzheimer's before their memory starts to fail.
"One of the greatest challenges right now in terms of Alzheimer's disease is to detect changes very early on when they are still very subtle and to distinguish them from changes we know occur with normal ageing," said Dr Cohen Sherman, clinical director of the hospital's Psychological Assessment Centre.
In the study, Dr Sherman's team compared the language abilities of 22 healthy young people, 24 healthy older people and 22 people with MCI.
Each were given three words, such as "stove, water and pot" and asked to create a sentence with the words.
Dr Sherman said there was a "significant difference" between the healthy groups and the one with cognitive impairment. The healthy individuals produced a precise sentence, while those with MCI struggled.
Dr Sherman said subjects with MCI also tended to lose their train of thought as they spoke.
"The difference is the mean length of utterance - how many words MCI subjects used versus healthy older subjects," Dr Sherman said.
Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston, Dr Sherman cited studies of the vocabulary of famous Alzheimer's patients including late English authors Iris Murdoch and Agatha Christie, as well as comparing language used by former US presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush.
"Ronald Reagan started to have a decline in the number of unique words with repetitions of statements over time, whereas George HW Bush didn't," she said.
Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's after leaving office.
Dr Sherman said Iris Murdoch's later works showed signs of Alzheimer's years before her diagnosis, and pointed to the repetitive and vague phrasing in Agatha Christie's final novels although the crime writer was never diagnosed with dementia.
While many individuals may be long-winded, Dr Sherman said that alone is not a concern. "You need to be concerned if there is a change in your ability to communicate effectively."