Mild cognitive impairment and alzheimers disease

10 important questions on Mild cognitive impairment and alzheimers disease

Alzheimers visual and perceptual functions

  • environmental information gets lost
  • dressing disturbances (failure to locate sleeve)
  • impaired contrast and figure background discrimination (missing toilet, misplacing items)
  • various visual agnosias
  • associated with pathology in visual association cortex
  • occurs early but is not clinically apparent until memory ant attention disturbances are fully manifested (failure to copy complex figure of rey, )

Alzheimers executive functioning

  • umbrella term for:
    -planning
    -set shifting
    -inhibition
    -working memory
    -initiation
    -etc.
  • executive functions are mainly for non-routine situations
  • impairment in executive functions are already present in early stages
  • impairments in executive functions often underlie problems in activities of daily living

Alzheimers neuropsychiatric issues

  • core feature of alzheimers
  • occur earlier in some patients than others
  • once established, some evolve, remain the same, or recede
  • behavioural deterioration may occur due to an acute stressor
  • changes range from apathy,social withdrawal, disinhibition, agitation, eating disorders, psychosis
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Alzheimers personality and social behaviour

  • early stages
    -personality and behaviour are broadly preserved
    -patients function well socially

Alzhiemers other neuropsychiatric issues

  • delusions and hallucinations
    -delusions are more common and are often persecutory, theft, or spousal infidelity
    -hallucinations are usually visual
    -predict more rapid decline
  • depression
    -alzheimers and depression often coexist
    -depression often precedes alzheimers
  • agression and agitation, provoked by:
    -confusion
    -delusions
    -depression
    -sleeping problems
    -pain
    -infections or drugs
    -trivial changes in environment

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI)

  • subjective and objective cognitive symptoms
  • transitional stage between normal aging and dementia

MCI diagnostical criteria

  • changes in cognitive status
  • impairment in one or more cognitive domains
  • preservation of independence in functional abilities
  • not demented

MCI differential diagnosis

  • Normal aging
  • dementia
    -alzheimers
    -lewy body dementia
    -frontotemporal dementia
  • depression
  • delirium
  • metabolic factors

Differential diagnosis depression

  • depressed patients are impaired in:
    -memory
    -executive functions
    -attention
    -psychomotor speed

MCI influence of age, gender and education

  • MCI is more common in men
  • fewer years of education is associated with a higher prevalence of MCI
  • the prevalence of MCI increases with age

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