Chapter 15: Neurocognitive Disorders Flashcards
Neurocognitive Disorders
- affect learning, memory, and consciousness
- develop later in life
- some urinary tract infections can cause symptoms
Types of Memory (3)
Episodic: things that have been experienced, have autobiographical quality
Semantic: facts that aren’t directly related to oneself (think school textbooks)
Procedural: motor skills
Delirium
characterised by impaired consciousness and cognitions lasting several hours or days
- disorientation, out of touch with reality
- attention cannot be maintained
- impairments in memory/language
Delirium Prevalence
- mostly older adults, cancer patients, those with AIDS, and those undergoing medical procedures
- 40-50% of people with Delirium die within 1 year
Delirium Etiology
- intro of drugs/poisons into the body
- e.g. molly and bathsalts
- older adults are bad at getting rid of drugs
- experienced by children with fevers or on certain medications; often confused with noncompliance
- happens during dementia
- withdrawal of anxiolytic drugs
- infection
Delirium Treatments
- addressing the underlying causes first
- antipsychotics
- psychosocial intervention (having familiar objects and family around)
- keeping the patient as independent and in control as possible
Delirium Prevention
- proper care for medical illnesses
- therapeutic drug monititoring
- Multidisciplinary interventions
- reorienting the patient, getting sensory aids, increased sleep, hydration and nutrition, etc
Major and Mild Neurocognitive Disorder
major: formerly called dementia
mild: classification for early stages of cognitive decline
Major and Mild Cognitive Disorder Types (13)
- due to Alzheimer’s
- due to frontotemporal damage
- with Lewy Bodies (motor control dysfunction is highly significant)
- vascular (anything doing with the arteries and blood flow)
- due to traumatic brain injury
- induced by substance or medication
- due to HIV
- due to prion disease
- due to Parkinson’s
- due to Huntingson’s
- due to another medical condition
- due to multiple etiologies
- unspecified
Major and Mild Neurocognitive Disorder Etiologies
- deterministic and susceptibility genes
- substance abuse
- lifestyle choices
- cultural factors
Major and Mild Neurocognitive Disorder Prevalence
1/25 for 65+
1/5 for 85+
5 million Americans
> common for < educated
> common for women
Course of Major and Mild Neurocognitive Disorder
- early onset: 40-50
- usual onset: 60-70s
- memory and visuospatial impairment
- facial agnosia (inability to recognise familiar faces)
- delusions, apathy, depression, agitation, aggression
- early stages/late stages are slow but the middle stages are rapid
- 50% are due to Alzheimers
Different Symptoms (3)
- aphasia
- apraxia
- agnosia
Aphasia
difficulty with language
Apraxia
impaired motor functioning
Agnosia
failure to recognise objects
Sandwich Generation
those that are both taking care of their elderly parents and taking care of their children
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
caused by continuous blows to the head, not quite concussions but pretty close
- usually categorised as “other”
- usual onset in 40-50s
- punch drunk = CTE
