Alzheimer’s disease is characterized, first, by a slowly progressive decline in short-term memory and, later, a decline in other brain skills. Mild cognitive impairment is characterized by a milder decline in memory and is the precursor of more severe memory loss in some. A recent study from the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center was published in Archives of Neurology. The results demonstrated that by current diagnostic standards, mild cognitive impairment is preceded by a 7 year decline in short-term memory. As with any potentially progressive disorder (e.g., diabetes, cancer) treatments are more effective if started as early as possible. The Rush study consists of more than 2000 elderly individuals who had their memory and other thinking skills assessed annually since 1994 and 1997. In other words, the study treated memory like we treat medical evaluation. Most of us have annual evaluations […]
What should you expect in a memory evaluation? A good evaluation doesn’t hurt and you can’t pass or fail. It’s not like going to school. The essence of the evaluation is to determine how your memory and thinking skills are working. You should be comfortable and family members should be able to sit in and add their observations. There are three parts to a thorough evaluation: interview, formal evaluation, and feedback. There are several objectives for an interview about memory. First, the interviewer should put you at ease. Ideally, you and someone who knows you well (in case you forget that you forget) are interviewed at the same time. Part of the interview is to provide background information such as birth date, education, work history, health history, etc. This information also provides an assessment of your long term memory (e.g., […]
