In the verbal response component, a score of 3 corresponds to which description?

• A. Inappropriate words
• B. Oriented
• C. Confused
• D. Incomprehensible sounds

Answer: (A)

This item focuses on how the verbal response is scored on the Glasgow Coma Scale. On that scale, the patient’s verbal output is rated from five to one based on coherence and contextual correctness. A description described as inappropriate words means the patient is speaking but the words are not appropriate to the situation and often come out as random or disorganized. They can form actual words, but those words don’t make sense in the question asked or the current context.

This is different from being oriented, where the patient can correctly identify person, place, and time; different from being confused, where responses are words but not organized or accurate; and different from producing incomprehensible sounds, where there are sounds but no meaningful words. So the description that fits this score is that the patient speaks with words that are inappropriate or non-coherent for the situation.