Impairments to neurocognitive functions are among the main signs of brain damage, and are particularly manifest in the elderly. A significant proportion of elderly people consistently show “age-related” changes in cognitive functions within the age norm and not leading to social maladaptation, while other cases show increasing cognitive deficit resulting in loss of the ability to work, followed by domestic dependence – this is dementia. However, loss of mental faculty does not develop instantaneously – it is preceded by a longer or shorter transitional period, during which cognitive disorders are beyond age norms but have not yet reached the extent generally associated with the concept of dementia. Nonetheless, the onset of signs of dementia over prolonged periods of time provides a criterion for the main illness predominantly apparent as cognitive impairments. The need for earlier diagnosis led to the concept of “moderate cognitive disorder” (MoCD). Studies to date allow MoCD to be regarded as a constituent part of the complex structure of overlapping syndromes (“pre-dementia cognitive disorders”), whose identification may have not only theoretical, but also purely pragmatic relevance, on the one hand allowing series of clinical trials with different therapeutic targets to be planned and, on the other, rational approaches to the management of patients in clinical practice to be constructed.
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Translated from Zhurnal Nevrologii i Psikhiatrii imeni S. S. Korsakova, Vol. 119, No. 9, Iss. 2, pp. 10–17, September, 2019.
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Levin, O.S. Predementia Neurocognitive Disorders in the Elderly. Neurosci Behav Physi 50, 687–694 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-020-00956-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-020-00956-5