Cognitive impairment signals that the full functioning of the brain is severely impaired. Such patients are often little adapted to ordinary life and cannot do without the daily help of other people.
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What are cognitive impairment?
Cognitive functions are an important part of the nervous system, which is responsible for understanding, perceiving and rethinking any information that flows continuously into the brain from the outside world.
In the event of a malfunction of these functions, a person often cannot independently and fully live, since he suffers from:
- Memory. The received information is poorly or not remembered at all; the patient cannot reproduce the received data.
- Attention. It becomes impossible to concentrate, a person is not able to highlight the main thing.
- Intelligence. Analysis and ability to draw conclusions are violated.
- Perception. In severe cases, the patient does not perceive information from the outside world, cannot determine the nature of the subject by external signs or by touch.
- Psychomotor function. Most of the acquired skills are lost (drawing, writing, brushing, driving, cycling or ice skating).
- Speech. The patient cannot speak clearly and articulate, loses the ability to understand and express his thoughts with the help of words and sentences.
In any case, the quality of life in such patients is unsatisfactory.
Degrees of Disorder
Violations of this type can be divided into three types, depending on their severity:
- Lungs. Outsiders can see that the patient has a slight deterioration in memory and concentration.He can forget where he put his things, finds words with difficulty, if he needs to speak, he has a lot of difficulties in an unfamiliar place. With mental exercises of any kind, a person gets tired very quickly. As a result of this, professional and social activity are slightly disturbed, but still the patient is not yet helpless and can serve himself.
- Moderate. At the same time, two to three cognitive processes worsen. A person constantly forgets everything, cannot find a way even to familiar places, mental activity is difficult. Such a patient already needs outside help, as he constantly experiences difficulties even in everyday affairs.
- Heavy. This stage is also called dementia. The patient is absolutely disoriented in time, remembers little, is not even able to serve himself. One cannot do without constant outside help. In especially severe cases, such a patient completely loses all psychomotor skills, loses speech. Often occurs after a stroke. Of particular note is vascular dementia, the main cause of which is vascular damage in the brain.
Read also:dementia in the elderly
Only a specialist can accurately determine the severity of the disease.
Causes of occurrence
All causes of the cognitive impairment syndrome can be divided into two large groups.
- Functional. In these cases, direct brain damage is ruled out. Trite stresses, overwork, excess of negative emotions can provoke this condition. No one is safe from this condition; it can occur in children, adolescents, youth, and older people. Such failures do not represent a particular danger, often it’s enough to remove the cause of how everything falls into place. In special cases, there is still a need for taking light medications.
- Organic Such disorders always have one reason - brain damage. The list of diseases that can lead to this condition is extensive. This includes many diseases of the brain - stroke, atherosclerosis, pathological high blood pressure, oncology, multiple sclerosis. Also at risk are people who abuse drugs, alcohol, drugs. Disorders can also trigger head injuries, diabetes mellitus, liver and renal failure, hypothyroidism, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. These diseases are most often found in older people. But it is worth noting that adequate and timely treatment, even in such serious cases, helps to achieve a noticeable remission.
Cognitive impairment in children appears for other reasons. This may be trauma during birth, hypovitaminosis, hypoxia, intrauterine infection.
Symptoms and signs of the syndrome
Symptoms are very diverse and largely depend on where the disorders are localized and what is the severity of the pathological process. With vascular diseases of the brain, it is mainly not one that suffers, but all at once.
Common symptoms:
- Sharp memory impairment. At first, the patient forgets only the recent events, but over time, he cannot reproduce even the information that has long been stored in his memory.
- Decreased attention span.
- Inhibition of thinking. It becomes very difficult for a person to perceive and process the text, both oral and written. He cannot draw conclusions.
- Lack of orientation when hit in an unfamiliar place.
- The complete absence of a critical attitude to their often awkward behavior.
- Fatigue.
In children, the characteristic symptoms are slightly different. First of all, such a child is hyperactive, unable to concentrate, is constantly nervous, has many behavioral reactions disturbed, and reading and writing is difficult for him.
Identification of cognitive impairment
It is better for the patient to come with someone from the relatives for an appointment, since in this case any information that is difficult for the patient to remember will be useful. The doctor will definitely ask if the patient is taking any medications, if he has bad habits, if there were injuries, or if heredity is bad.
After collecting all available information, the patient will be examined by a neurologist and psychiatrist.
The patient will have to undergo tests - a specially composed set of exercises. The patient will need to solve problems, reproduce and memorize words, images, perform certain actions. In such cases, the mmse scale is often used - a long list of questions that help determine the state of memory, perception, speech, orientation in space and time. It is used not only for diagnosis, but also later for monitoring the effectiveness of treatment. All kinds of laboratory and hardware tests are often prescribed.
Treatment in children and adults
In any case, it will be very useful for patients to engage in various activities that develop fine motor skills. It can be knitting, embroidery, beadwork, drawing. An excellent exercise for the brain is solving crosswords, even if they are simple at first.
If an adult has noticeable mild symptoms of the disorder, he can already start taking Glycine and the vitamins that suit him. A visit to the doctor should not be delayed. To correct pathological changes, a specialist can prescribe more potent drugs - Cavinton, Ceraxon, Nootropil.
Patients with pronounced dementia are prescribed "Galantamine", "Donepezil", "Memantine".
Treatment of children must be comprehensive and include both drug and other methods of therapy. Of the drugs, the most commonly used nootropics ("Piracetam" "Encephabol"), which improve the functionality of the central nervous system. This has a positive effect on attention, intellectual activity, speech, memory. In such cases, psychotherapy classes are also indispensable.
Prevention
Once manifested violations, even in the case of effective treatment, tend to occur again and again.
Therefore, in order to prevent deterioration of one's own condition, it is worth listening to these simple rules:
- regularly take the prescribed drugs;
- engage in exercises that train memory, attention (crosswords, drawing, memorizing verses by heart);
- avoid stress, always try to maintain a stable mood;
- to engage in a simple sport;
- to communicate with nice people, not to become isolated;
- to correctly compose a diet (in these cases, the Mediterranean diet is especially good).
Cognitive impairment is a very serious problem. Therefore, everything must be done to prevent further progression.
