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Cognitive Impairment in Aging: 10 Common Causes & 10 Things the Doctor Should Check

Have you been worried about an older person’s memory or thinking abilities?

Maybe your parent has seemed more confused recently. Or you may have noticed that your aging spouse is repeating herself, or struggling to do things that didn’t use to pose much of a problem.

These are very common concerns, and they often lead to questions such as:

Is this normal aging or something more significant?
What is wrong?
Could this be Alzheimer’s? Or some other form of dementia?
Can this be treated or reversed?
What should we do about this??

The answer to the last question is this: if you are worried about memory or thinking, then you should seek out some kind of medical evaluation.

That’s because when families worry about an older person’s cognitive abilities, there often are some underlying health issues affecting the mind’s function.

Those need to be detected, and treated if at all possible. So, you’ll need to request help from a health professional, and in this article, I’ll explain what that initial help should consist of. This way you’ll know what to expect, and what the doctor might ask you about.

Technically, these kinds of problems are called “cognitive impairment.” This is a broad term that means some kind of problem or difficulty with one’s memory, thinking, concentration, and other functions of the conscious brain, beyond what might be expected due to normal “cognitive aging.”

(For more on “cognitive aging” and what types of changes are considered normal aging, see this article: 6 Ways that Memory & Thinking Change with Normal Aging, & What to Do About This.)

Cognitive impairment — which is also called “cognitive decline” — can come on suddenly or gradually, and can be temporary or more permanent. It may or may not keep getting slowly worse; it all depends on the underlying cause or causes.

In this article, I’ll share with you the more common causes of cognitive impairment in older adults.

I’ll then share a list of 10 things that should generally be done, during a preliminary medical evaluation for cognitive decline in an older adult.

Common causes of cognitive impairment in older adults

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6 Steps to Better High Blood Pressure Treatment for Older Adults

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 135 Comments

Have you been concerned about high blood pressure (hypertension)? Or are you worried about an older relative having a stroke or heart attacks?

You’re not alone. After all, hypertension is the most common chronic condition among older adults, and medications for blood pressure (BP) are among the most commonly taken drugs in the US.

Even more important: poorly controlled hypertension is a major contributor to the most common causes of death and disability in older adults: strokes, heart attacks, and heart failure.

So it’s certainly sensible for older adults – and for those helping aging parents – to think about blood pressure.

And once you start thinking about high blood pressure, you’ll probably start to wonder.

Are the blood pressure medications you’re taking enough? Is your blood pressure at the “right” level or should you and your doctors work on changing things?

And what about that major research – the SPRINT trial — that made the news in 2015? (In this study, older adults randomized to aim for a lower BP did better than those who got “standard” BP treatment.)

These are excellent questions to ask, so I’d like to help you answer them.

Now, I can’t provide exact answers on the Internet. But what I can do is provide a sensible process that will help you successfully address these questions.

In this article, I’ll share with you the process that I use to:

Assess an older person’s blood pressure management plan, and
Determine whether we should attempt changes.

If you’re an older adult, you can use this approach to get started assessing your own BP management plan. This will help you to better work with your doctors on assessing and managing your blood pressure.

If you are helping an older relative manage health, you can follow these steps on behalf of your relative. [Read more…]

4 Types of Brain-Slowing Medication to Avoid if You’re Worried About Memory

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH

A few years ago, while I was at a family celebration, several people mentioned memory concerns to me.

Some were older adults concerned about the memory of their spouses. Some were adult children concerned about the memory of their parents. And a few were older adults who have noticed some slowing down of their own memory.

“But you know, nothing much that can be done at my age,” remarked one man in his eighties.

Wrong. In fact, there is a lot that can and should be done, if you notice memory or thinking changes in yourself or in another older adult. And you should do it because it ends up making a difference for brain health and quality of life.

First among them: identify medications that make brain function worse.

This is not just my personal opinion. Identifying and reducing such medications is a mainstay of geriatrics practice.

And the expert authors of the National Academy of Medicine report on Cognitive Aging agree: in their Action Guide for Individuals and Families, they list “Manage your medications” among their “Top 3 actions you can take to help protect your cognitive health as you age.”

Unfortunately, many older adults are unaware of this recommendation. And I can’t tell you how often I find that seniors are taking over-the-counter or prescription medications that dampen their brain function. Sometimes it’s truly necessary but often it’s not.

What especially troubles me is that most of these older adults — and their families — have no idea that many have been linked to developing dementia, or to worsening of dementia symptoms. So it’s worth spotting them whether you are concerned about mild cognitive impairment or caring for someone with full-blown Alzheimers.

Every older adult and family should know how to optimize brain function. Avoiding problem medications — or at least using them judiciously and in the lowest doses necessary — is key to this.

And don’t give anyone a pass when they say “Oh, I’ve always taken this drug.” Younger and healthier brains experience less dysfunction from these drugs. That’s because a younger brain has more processing power and is more resilient. So drugs that aren’t such problems earlier in life often have more impact later in life. Just because you took a drug in your youth or middle years doesn’t mean it’s harmless to continue once you are older.

You should also know that most of these drugs affect balance, and may increase fall risk. So there’s a double benefit in identifying them, and minimizing them.

Below, I share the most commonly used drugs that you should look out for if you are worried about memory problems.

Featured Download: Get my free list of medications that can affect memory and thinking in aging adults. This handy PDF includes all the medications I usually check for. Click here to download.

The Four Most Commonly Used Types of Medications That Dampen Brain Function

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Q&A: What to do if your aging parent becomes rude & resistant

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 91 Comments

[The following question was forwarded to me by Nancy Stein, who addresses caregiving questions on her blog at SeniorityMatters.com.]

Q: My loving, Jewish mother is 92 and has turned into a rude, abusive foul-mouthed woman who I no longer recognize.

She’s in relatively good health and amazingly lives in the same house I grew up in. She has an aide during the day. She won’t leave the house,treats the aide poorly and last weekend cursed out my very patient spouse. We’ve been getting 5 calls as day such as ” I”m having a heart attack; no one will tell me whether recycling comes today”!

I know she has early signs of dementia. Her cardiologist tells me not to take it to heart and this is not the same women who raised me. She won’t go to the JCC adult programs, complains about being lonely at night, yet hangs up on me when I tell her we can get an aide at night or sell the home and let her live in a facility with women her age, etc. She threatens to call the Police if someone comes to her home at night. I have a POA but don’t want to rob her of her independence at 92. I try to tell her to speak nicely to the aides, myself, my spouse, but she says ” I don’t remember or I must have reacted to something someone did or said.”

I feel guilty as I’m not spending as much time with her as I would like, but it’s a matter of survival. Jewish guilt is thrown about with impunity and I can’t tell whether she’s being manipulative and obsessing over bullshit ( “oh my God the outside light may burn out tonight” ) or she really can’t control herself. Her aide is a lovely human being but my mom orders her around like a slave. Who is this woman? I’m torn, anguishing over what to do and am doing nothing but try to correct her inappropriate behavior and language. I wanted to take her to a geriatric psychiatrist but she refused to go. Medication to calm her down is dangerous per the MD as she could fall, etc.

What should I do? I’m at my wits end.

Dr. K’s answer:

Wow, difficult situation but unfortunately not uncommon.

You say your mother has early signs of dementia, and it is true that “personality changes” can be due to an underlying dementia, such as fronto-temporal dementia or Alzheimer’s, especially if a family notices other changes in memory or thinking abilities.

But it doesn’t sound like your mother’s been clinically evaluated for dementia, and you don’t say whether this has been brought up with her primary care doctor.

How to Get Her Evaluated

[Read more…]

Hospital Delirium: What to know & do

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH

“How should delirium be managed in the hospital?”

This question came up during a Q & A session, as we were discussing the Choosing Wisely recommendation to avoid tying down older adults who become confused during a hospitalization. (See item 5 in this article.)

Delirium is a common and important problem for all older adults in the hospital; it doesn’t just happen to people with a dementia diagnosis!

But many family caregivers have hardly heard of hospital delirium. This is too bad, since there’s a lot that caregivers can do to prevent this serious complication, or at least prevent an older loved one from being physically restrained if delirium does occur.

In this post, I’ll review what older adults and family caregivers absolutely should know about hospital delirium. And, we’ll cover some of the things you can do if it happens to your loved one. [Read more…]

Common causes of cognitive impairment in older adults

The Four Most Commonly Used Types of Medications That Dampen Brain Function

Dr. K’s answer:

How to Get Her Evaluated

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