Neurocognitive disorders

Question 1

What are neurocognitive disorders?

Answer 1

decreased mental functions due to medical diseases e.g. dementia
acquired not developmental

Question 2

What are the common causes of NCDs?

Answer 2

disease, physical trauma, genetic predisposition

Question 3

what are mild NCDs?

Answer 3

cognitive impairments that don’t reach the threshold of dementia

Question 4

what are the cognitive functions that are faulty?

Answer 4

• deficits of attention and arousal: early indicator
• language deficits (aphasia)
• visuo-perceptual functioning: inability to process sensory info due to neural insult
• deficits in executive functions: often expressed as poor judgement, inappropriate behaviour, erratic mood swings

Question 5

what is Broca’s aphasia?

Answer 5

difficulty initiating speech/producing complex words

Question 6

what is Wernicke’s aphasia?

Answer 6

production of incoherent jumbled speech

Question 7

what is conduction aphasia?

Answer 7

difficulty repeating speech

Question 8

types of agnosia (inability to process sensory info)

Answer 8

• prosopagnosia (faces)
• amusia (music)
• movement
• akinetopsia (motion blindless)
• apraxia (motor deficit)

Question 9

how are NCDs assessed and diagnosed?

Answer 9

diagnosis made on basis of cog/beh impairments detected by brain scans + biomarker assessments (blood) + behavioural + historical context

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV: widely used, scale that measures lots of cog functions
• Trail making task: patients should connect circles by alternating between letters and numbers

Question 10

difficulties associated with diagnosis

Answer 10

• symptoms resemble other psychopathologies
• symptom overlap with neurological disorders
• common risk factor=age
• closed head trauma may produce memory deficits that resemble AD
• can be mild or major

Question 11

cognitive rehabilitation programs

Answer 11

• for attentional deficits: attention process training=e.g. press buzzer when word is opposite to the previous word
• for visuo-perceptual deficits: compensatory strategies e.g. for prosopagnosia focus on voice, body shape etc.
• for apraxia: gestural training, VR
• for language deficits: speech therapy
• for aphasia: constraint induced movement therapy- mass practice of verbal responses/group communication treatment
• for memory deficits: everyday memory prompts/visual imagery mnemonics
• for exec functions: overlap with memory and attention interventions/goal management training