Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Mild Cognitive Impairments (MCI)
- What is it?
- Symptoms
- Problems with day to day memory
- Difficulty planning
- Problems with language
- Difficulty with attention span
- Problems with visuospatial skills
- MCI can signal the beginning of dementia, or be completely unrelated and due to treatable illnesses.
- MCIs can be noticed by memory loss declining faster than at a normal pace in ageing.
- Causes external to dementia
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Physical illness
- Side effect of medication
- Developing into dementia
- 2/3 MCI patients experience memory loss
- Statistics
- 10-15% of MCI patients develop dementia
- 15-20% of older people develop an MCI
- MCI patients are 3-5x more likely to develop dementia than without an MCI
- Can we identify MCI that will increase risk of dementia?
- MRIs to detect changes in brain structure and activity are being researched
- Measuring protein concentration in cerebrospinal fluid may help predict risk of developing dementia
- Benefits if diagnosing MCI
- Helps indentify risk of dementia
- Can lead to earlier diagnosis of dementia
- Earlier access to treatments where needed
- Time to adopt a healthier lifestyle to prevent dementia
- Treatments
- No approved drugs
- Vague link to dementia drugs being beneficial
- Talking therapies such as counselling and CBT have been suggested to help
- Risk factors for developing dementia and MCIs
- Age
- Genes
- Depression
- Diabetes
- High BP
- Smoking
- Excessive drinking
- High cholesterol
- Obesity