Neurocognative disorder

• Delirium


  • Characterized by impaired consciousness and cognition during the course of several hours or days
  • Appear confused, disoriented, and out of touch with their surroundings
  • Effects may be more lasting
  • Can be experienced by children who have high fevers or taking certain medication
  • Reversible
  • Occurs during the course of dementia
  • Full recovery with or without treatment
• Major Neurocognitive Disorder


  Gradual deterioration of brain functioning that affects memory, judgement, language, and other advanced cognitive process
• Mild Neurocognitive Disorder


  • Early stages of cognitive declines
  • Most impairments in cognitive abilities but can, with some accommodations
• Dementia


  Describe a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking, and social abilities severely enough to interfere daily life
• Alzheimer's


  • Most common type of neurocognitive disorder, usually occurring after the age 65, marked most prominently by memory impairment
  • Usually begins with mild memory problems, lapses of attention, and difficulties in language and communication
  • Excessive senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles
  • Includes multiple cognitive deficits that develop gradually and steadily
  • Inability to integrate new information results to failure to learn new association
  • Anomia, Apraxia, Agnosia, Amnesia, Aphasia
  • Cognitive deterioration is slow during the early and later stages but more rapid during middle stages
• Vascular Injury


  • When the blood vessels in the brain are blocked or damaged and no longer carry oxygen and other nutrients to certain areas of brain tissues, damage results
  • Declines in speed of information processing and executive functioning
• Frontotemporal Degeneration


  • Categorize a variety of brain disorders that damage the frontal or temporal regions of the brain – areas that affect personality, language, and behavior
  • Declines in appropriate behavior or language
  • Pick's Disease: rare neurological condition that produces symptoms similar to Alzheimer's, usually occurring in relatively early in life (40s or 50s)
• Traumatic Brain Injury


  Symptoms must persist for at least a week following the trauma, including executive dysfunction and problems with learning and memory
• Lewy Body Disease


  • Involves the buildup of clumps of protein deposits called Lewy Bodies, within many neurons
  • Features significant movement difficulties, visual hallucinations, and sleep disturbances
  • Second most common neurocognitive disorder
  • Gradual and include impairment in alertness and attention, vivid visual hallucinations, and motor impairment
• Parkinson's Disease

  • Slowly progressive neurological disorder marked by tremors, rigidity, and unsteadiness
  • Motor problems, tend to have stooped posture, slow body movements (bradykinesia), tremors, and jerkiness
  • Damage in dopamine pathways
• HIV Infection


  • HIV infection seems to be responsible for the neurological impairment
  • Early symptoms: cognitive slowness, impaired attention, and forgetfulness
  • Clumsy, repetitive movements, and become apathetic and socially withdrawn
  • Sometimes referred as Subcortical Dementia
  • More likely to experience depression and anxiety
• Substance-Use


  • Use of different psychoactive substances + poor diet
  • Include memory impairment, aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, or disturbance in executive functioning
• Huntington's


  • Inherited progressive disease in which memory problems, along with personality changes and mood difficulties, worsen over time
  • Have movement problems too, such as severe twitching and spasms
• Prion Disease


  • Caused by prions (proteins that can reproduce and cause damage to brain cells leading to neurocognitive decline
  • No treatment but not contagious
  • Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: symptoms include spasms of the body caused by slow acting virus that may live in the body for years before the disease develops