Cognitive Disorders

Cognitive disorders
Cognitive disorders are a category of mental health

disorders that primarily affect learning, memory, perception, and
problem solving, and include amnesia, dementia, and delirium.
Delirium
Delirium is a serious disturbance in a person's mental
abilities that results in a decreased awareness of one's
environment and confused thinking. The onset of delirium is
usually sudden, often within hours or a few days.
Delirium can often be traced to one or more
contributing factors, such as a severe or chronic medical illness,
medication, infection, surgery, or drug or alcohol abuse.
Symptoms
Reduced awareness of the environment
This may result in:
An inability to stay focused on a topic or to change topics
Wandering attention
Getting stuck on an idea rather than responding to questions or

conversation
Being easily distracted by unimportant things
Being withdrawn, with little or no activity or little response to the
environment
Poor thinking skills (cognitive impairment)

This may appear as:
Poor memory, particularly of recent events

Disorientation, or not knowing where one is, who one is or what
time of day it is
Difficulty speaking or recalling words
Rambling or nonsense speech
Difficulty understanding speech
Difficulty reading or writing
Behavior changes
Seeing things that don't exist (hallucinations)
Restlessness, agitation, irritability or combative behavior
Disturbed sleep habits
Extreme emotions, such as fear, anxiety, anger or depression
Causes
Delirium is most often caused by physical or mental illness
and is usually temporary and reversible. Many disorders cause
delirium, including conditions that deprive the brain of oxygen or
other substances. Causes include:
Alcohol or sedative drug withdrawal

Drug abuse
Electrolyte or other body chemical disturbances

Infections such as urinary tract
infections or pneumonia (more likely in people who already
have brain damage from stroke or dementia)
Poisons
Surgery
Dementia
Other medical conditions can result in symptoms associated
with delirium. Dementia and delirium may be particularly difficult
to distinguish, and a person may have both. In fact, frequently
delirium occurs in people with dementia.
Dementia
is
the progressive decline of memory and other thinking skills due to
the gradual dysfunction and loss of brain cells. The most common
cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease.
Some differences between the symptoms of delirium and
dementia include:
Onset. The onset of delirium occurs within a short time,

while dementia usually begins with relatively minor symptoms
that gradually worsen over time.
Attention. The inability to stay focused or maintain

attention is significantly impaired with delirium. A person in the
early stages of dementia remains generally alert.
Fluctuation. The appearance of delirium symptoms can

fluctuate significantly and often throughout the day. While
people with dementia have better and worse times of day, their
memory and thinking skills stay at a fairly constant level during

the course of a day.
Amnesia
Amnesia refers to the loss of memories, such as facts, information and
experiences. Though having no sense of who you are is a common plot device in
movies and television, real-life amnesia generally doesn't cause a loss of self-identity.
Instead, people with amnesia also called amnestic syndrome are usually
lucid and know who they are, but may have trouble learning new information and
forming new memories.
Amnesia can be caused by damage to areas of the brain that are vital for
memory processing. Unlike a temporary episode of memory loss (transient global
amnesia), amnesia can be permanent.
There's no specific treatment for amnesia, but techniques for enhancing memory
and psychological support can help people with amnesia and their families cope.
Symptoms:
The two main features of amnesia are:
Impaired ability to learn new information following the onset

of amnesia (anterograde amnesia)
Impaired ability to recall past events and previously familiar

information (retrograde amnesia)
- Most people with amnesia have problems with shortterm memory they can't retain new information.
Recent memories are most likely to be lost, while more
remote or deeply ingrained memories may be spared.
Someone may recall experiences from childhood or
know the names of past presidents, but not be able to
name the current president or remember what month it
is or what was for breakfast.
- Isolated memory loss doesn't affect a person's
intelligence, general knowledge, awareness, attention
span, judgment, personality or identity. People with
amnesia usually can understand written and spoken

words and can learn skills such as bike riding or piano
playing. They may understand they have a memory
disorder.
- Amnesia isn't the same as dementia. Dementia often
includes memory loss, but it also involves other
significant cognitive problems that lead to a decline in
the ability to carry out daily activities.
- A pattern of forgetfulness is also a common symptom of
mild cognitive impairment (MCI), but the memory and
other cognitive problems in MCI aren't as severe as
those experienced in dementia.
Depending on the cause of the amnesia, other signs and
symptoms may include:
False recollections (confabulation), either completely

invented or made up of genuine memories misplaced in time
Confusion or disorientation
Causes
Stroke
Brain inflammation (encephalitis) as a result of infection with

a virus such as herpes simplex virus, as an autoimmune
reaction to cancer somewhere else in the body (paraneoplastic
limbic encephalitis), or as an autoimmune reaction in the
absence of cancer
Lack of adequate oxygen in the brain, for example, from

heart attack, respiratory distress or carbon monoxide poisoning
Long-term alcohol abuse leading to thiamin (vitamin B-1)

deficiency (Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome)
Tumors in areas of the brain that control memory
Degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease
and other forms of dementia
Seizures
Certain medications, such as benzodiazepines
Treatment
Occupational therapy
A person with amnesia may work with an occupational
therapist to learn new information to replace what was lost, or to
use intact memories as a basis for taking in new
information.Memory training may also include a variety of
strategies for organizing information so that it's easier to
remember and for improving understanding of extended
conversation.
Technological assistance
Many people with amnesia find it helpful to use smart
technology, such as a smartphone or a hand-held tablet device.
With some training and practice, even people with severe
amnesia can use these electronic organizers to help with day-today tasks. For example, smartphones can be programmed to
remind them about important events or to take medications.Lowtech memory aids include notebooks, wall calendars, pill minders,
and photographs of people and places.
Medications or supplements
No medications are currently available for treating most

types of amnesia. Amnesia caused by Wernicke-Korsakoff
syndrome involves a lack of thiamin. Treatment includes replacing
this vitamin and providing proper nutrition. Although treatment,
which also needs to include alcohol abstinence, can help prevent
further damage, most people won't recover all of their lost
memory.

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Cognitive disorders

Cognitive disorders are a category of mental health

An inability to stay focused on a topic or to change topics

Getting stuck on an idea rather than responding to questions or

Poor thinking skills (cognitive impairment)

Poor memory, particularly of recent events

Difficulty speaking or recalling words

Rambling or nonsense speech

Difficulty understanding speech

Difficulty reading or writing

Seeing things that don't exist (hallucinations)

Restlessness, agitation, irritability or combative behavior

Disturbed sleep habits

Extreme emotions, such as fear, anxiety, anger or depression

Alcohol or sedative drug withdrawal

Electrolyte or other body chemical disturbances

Onset. The onset of delirium occurs within a short time,

Attention. The inability to stay focused or maintain

Fluctuation. The appearance of delirium symptoms can

memory and thinking skills stay at a fairly constant level during

Impaired ability to learn new information following the onset

Impaired ability to recall past events and previously familiar

amnesia usually can understand written and spoken

False recollections (confabulation), either completely

Brain inflammation (encephalitis) as a result of infection with

Lack of adequate oxygen in the brain, for example, from

Long-term alcohol abuse leading to thiamin (vitamin B-1)

Certain medications, such as benzodiazepines

No medications are currently available for treating most

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