Mild cognitive impairment

The term mild cognitive impairment was coined to address a gradual progression of clinical symptoms between the cognitive changes of normal aging and those that constitute a dementia.

It is refers to a syndrome in which older individuals exhibit cognitive decline that is greater than expected for age and education, but that is not sufficient to meet the diagnostic criteria for dementia.

The term amnestic mild cognitive impairment is used when memory is impaired and then term non-amnestic mild cognitive impairment is used for other types of mild cognitive deficits.

During mild cognitive impairment subjects are experience subtle cognitive deficits with largely intact resonation and activities of daily living. The most frequent presentation of this clinical condition is with forgetfulness.

The clinical criteria used to identifying persons with mild cognitive impairment included:
*The person is neither normal nor demented
*There is evidence of cognitive deterioration either by objective measure of decline over time and subjective report of decline in conjunction with objective deficits
*Daily activities are preserved

The skill most commonly affected in mild cognitive impairment is learning and recall of new information, but in some cases, problems are noted in other cognitive areas, such as language, visuospatial skill, or reasoning.
Mild cognitive impairment