Verbal Fluency Performance in Normal Adult Population in Iran: Norms and Effects of Age, Education, and Gender.

Practitioners use neuropsychological tests to diagnose mental problems. Verbal fluency is a test in which participants have to generate as many words as possible from a specified category in a given time. This category can be phonemic (letter), which means words beginning with a specified letter or semantic, including objects such as animals or fruits. The number of words produced by participants is essential, and if it is fewer than normal, it shows psychological or neurological conditions such as Alzheimer disease. The norms are variable in different languages, cultures, and educational levels. We found that the Mean±SD numbers of generated words in letter fluency and semantic fluency were 8.3±4.1 and 18.0±5.5, respectively. These values can be used for neuropsychological testing in the Iranian population.