What does the Glasgow Coma Scale primarily assess?

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is specifically designed to assess a person's level of consciousness and neurological function following a brain injury or in a critical care setting. It evaluates three fundamental aspects of a patient's responsiveness: eye opening, verbal response, and motor response.

Eye opening assesses the patient's ability to open their eyes spontaneously or in response to stimuli. The verbal response measures the patient's ability to speak, including coherence and appropriateness of the words. The motor response evaluates how well the patient can move in response to commands or painful stimuli. By scoring these three components, clinicians can determine the severity of unconsciousness and make informed decisions about treatment and care.

Since the GCS focuses specifically on these three areas, it does not address motor skills in the context of muscle tone, cognitive abilities, or pupillary reactions, which makes the other choices less relevant for what is being assessed by the scale.