United States: Mild cognitive impairment and dementia are sustained by millions of Americans, and millions more are expected to be diagnosed with it in the years ahead.
The initial step you must take in case you experience memory or thinking difficulties is to have an assessment by a doctor, medical professionals explained.
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They emphasize that not every memory loss and mental deterioration is degenerative and irreversible, and instead, one should take tests to attempt to diagnose the causes of the symptoms and, in case of any, be prescribed the proper care.
Others start with the general practitioner or the geriatrician, who in turn may refer them to a neurologist.
One of those tests is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MOCA) and the Saint Louis University Mental Status Exam.
Is forgetting things ‘normal’ aging or something worse? Here’s first step to finding out – San Francisco Chronicle https://t.co/6NbGSsvJ1p
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According to Dr. Irina Skylar-Scott, who is a Stanford neurologist who specializes in memory disorders, “If someone is concerned about their memory and thinking and feel there’s a change from their prior baseline, the first step is to talk to their primary care physician,” sfchronicle.com reported.
“They can do a basic evaluation and talk to them to see if there could be an issue,” Scott added.
There may be testing by taking a detailed history and asking what the function was like and what has changed and making a line-by-line comparison of your results with what is supposed to be in the same age and level of education.
In some cases, physicians may perform some further tests like blood work and scans on the brain.
The blood tests can indicate whether there is abnormal thyroid activity or abnormal levels of vitamin B12 in a person, factors which can lead to symptoms resembling dementia.
With brain MRI, it will be possible to determine whether there is tissue loss in some parts of the memory centers of the brain, as sfchronicle.com reported.
This is due to the fact that the causes of cognitive issues may be numerous and non-related to dementia; therefore, the issue should be screened in order to eliminate the other conditions that would also cause such problems and lead to dementia-like signs.