Neurocognitive disorders Flashcards
(38 cards)
What are neurocognitive disorders
Distinct from psychological disorders
Insult to neural sites give rise to symptoms
* disease * trauma * degeneration
what are some common causes of NDCs
dementias - alzheimer’s/parkinsons
stroke
traumatic brain injury
what are some key features of NCDs
primary clinical deficit is in cognitive function
Acquired rather than developmental.
Decline from a previous level of function
why has the definition changed within the dsm-5
to allow for the introduction of mild neurocognitive disorders into diagnostic criteria
represents the move towards thinking of NCDs as existing on a spectrum
benefits of early diagnosis of neurocognitive disorders
mild ndcs often progress to major ndcs
mild ncd diagnosis allows for early intervention and monitoring of symptoms
neuropathology underlying ndcs often emerges well before symptoms
but, early diagnosis is not always easy
early interventions are still limited in terms of long term efficacy
why are mild neurocognitive disorders on the rise
medical advances
examination and understanding
infalmmation caused by covid 19
psychologists play central role in
diagnosis
assessment
rehabilitation
supportingg caregiver
research
learning and memory deficits
widely associated with various NCDs
- AMNESIA - diminished ability to learn new info
-failure to recall past events from the past
-failure to recall recent events
-specific traumatic head injury often result in anterograde amnesia
-memory loss for information acquired after onset of amnesia
-may also present with gradual onset in dementia
attention and arousal deficits
lack of attention or increased distractibility
difficulty focusing or keeping up with a conversation
diffuse neural basis: frontal and parietal regions implicated, but networks extend to subcortical structures
deficits in executive functions may include
working memory
problem solving
goal directed behaviour
attentional control
inhibitory control
planning and monitor complex behaviour
change in routine
-often expressed in ncds as poor judgement, inappropriate behaviour, or erratic mood swings
language deficits: aphasia
difficulty producing and or comprehending speech
brocas aphasia
difficulty initating speech or producing complex words
wernicke’s aphasia
production of incoherent jumbled speech
conduction aphasia
difficulty repeating speech
symptoms of brocas aphasia
anomia: poor word retrieval
agrammatism: difficulties with word ordering, selection and inflection
articulation difficulties
-typically characterised by non-fluent speech
symptoms of wernicke’s aphasia
anomia
structurally intact speech rate
but content often meaningless
unaware of impariment
visuo-perceptual functioning
inability to process sensory information due to neural insult
agnosia
faces
music
movement
prosopagnosia - face blindness
face processing problems
loss of familiarity of known faces
akinetopsia - motion blindness
loss of fluid motion perception
motor deficits - apraxia
loss of ability to execute learned movements
tu[ocally cause by lesion or degeneration of posterior parietal love
-limb apraxia
-apraxia of speech
the DSM-5 lists specific causes of NCDs…
-alzheimer’s disease
-vascular NCDs
-NCD due to parkinson’s disease
-NCD due to traumatic brain injury
-NCD due to HIV infection
NCD due to prion disease
NCD due to huntington’s disease
-frontotemporal NCD
why is it necessary to identify specific causes of NCDs
necessary to determine nature of deficits, and location of neural insult
-provide info abut onset, type, severity and progression of symptoms
-discriminate between neurological and psychiatric symptonms
list some difficulties of diagnosing NCDs
symptoms and deficits in NCDs often closely resemble other disorders
-misdiagnosis
-emergence of psychological problems
-overlap of symptoms
-single factors may cause broad symptoms
