The literature reviewed suggests that cognitive deficits are core features of mental health conditions such as schizophrenia and affective disorders, including bipolar and depression. Cognitive impairments may include problems with attention, memory recall, planning, organising, reasoning and problem solving.
Age is the primary cause of cognitive impairment. Other risk factors include family history, physical inactivity, and disease/conditions such as Parkinson's disease, heart disease, stroke, brain injury, brain cancers, drugs, toxins, and diabetes.
Cognitive disorders include dementia, amnesia, and delirium.
The main sign of mild cognitive impairment is a slight decline in mental abilities. Examples include: Memory loss: You may forget recent events or repeat the same questions and stories. You may occasionally forget the names of friends and family members or forget appointments or planned events.
Having a heart attack may put you at risk of accelerated cognitive decline in later years, above and beyond what is considered appropriate for the aging mind, according to a new study. Everyone's brain ages as the years pass, some more than others.
Information. Memory loss but not dementia: functional cognitive disorder (FCD) Researchers have studied people being assessed for problems with their thinking and memory. Recent figures suggest that, of people going to a memory clinic with such symptoms, as many as one in four don't have dementia.
High blood pressure causes faster cognitive decline, and that taking hypertension medication slows the pace of that decline.
While age is the primary risk factor for cognitive impairment, other risk factors include family history, education level, brain injury, exposure to pesticides or toxins, physical inactivity, and chronic conditions such as Parkinson's disease, heart disease and stroke, and diabetes.
The Mini-Cog test.
A third test, known as the Mini-Cog, takes 2 to 4 minutes to administer and involves asking patients to recall three words after drawing a picture of a clock. If a patient shows no difficulties recalling the words, it is inferred that he or she does not have dementia.
Administration: The examiner reads a list of 5 words at a rate of one per second, giving the following instructions: “This is a memory test. I am going to read a list of words that you will have to remember now and later on. Listen carefully. When I am through, tell me as many words as you can remember.
“Cognitive decline may begin after midlife, but most often occurs at higher ages (70 or higher).” (Aartsen, et al., 2002) “… relatively little decline in performance occurs until people are about 50 years old.” (Albert & Heaton, 1988).
Dr. Salinas says MCI can often be reversed if a general health condition (such as sleep deprivation) is causing the decline. In those cases, addressing the underlying cause can dramatically improve cognition. When MCI can't be reversed, treatment is challenging.
When cognition is impaired, it can have a profound impact on an individual's overall health and well-being. Cognitive decline can range from mild cognitive impairment to dementia, a form of decline in abilities severe enough to interfere with daily life.
People should be assessed for cognitive impairment if: The individual, family members, or others express concerns about changes in the person's memory, thinking, or behavior. As the health care provider, you observe problems/changes in the patient's memory, thinking, or behavior.
Changes in personality and social behavior that include apathy and disinhibition can occur. Patients lose their initiative, set aside their personal responsibilities, and experience impairment of their professional activities. They lose empathy for others and are not interested in what may occur in their environment.
Stage 7 – Very Severe Cognitive Decline: In this stage of dementia, persons have lost the ability to walk and communicate, requiring assistance with all activities.
Difficulty in completing familiar tasks (e.g., cooking, cleaning, laundry, bill paying) Confusion with time or place (e.g., repeatedly forgetting where one lives (address, city, state), the date (year, month, day of week) Difficulty understanding visual images and spatial relationships.
Alzheimer's disease, one of the most common cognitive disorders, affects approximately 5.1 million Americans.
Cholinesterase inhibitors (Aricept®, Exelon®, Razadyne®)
These medications prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine (a-SEA-til-KOHlean), a chemical messenger important for memory and learning. These drugs support communication between nerve cells.