Cognitive function is an important function of the human brain, including memory, attention, language ability, reasoning ability, execution and judgment ability.
When the brain structure changes, cognitive function may appear to be impaired, resulting in abnormal emotions and behaviors, and a decline in social ability and self-care ability.
There are many reasons for cognitive decline, such as the presence of degenerative changes in the nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, vascular diseases such as stroke, or some severe malnutrition, vitamin deficiency, hypothyroidism, brain infections, toxic effects of drugs, tumors, etc.
Although cognitive dysfunction is often difficult to detect in the early stages, as long as you observe carefully, you can still find some clues.
The following will list some of the possible symptoms, I hope you will pay attention to it, and once found, you will be treated as soon as possible!
01 Memory loss
In the case of Alzheimer's disease, memory loss is often manifested as not being able to remember recent events, or only remembering a rough idea, while past events are clearly remembered, such as not remembering the birthday with my children a few days ago, but being able to clearly remember what work I did when I was young.
As the disease progresses, it may confuse the sequence of events, the people and places, or put things that have never happened or happened to others on themselves, just like making up stories, which is called misconstruction in medicine, and the cognitive decline is already obvious at this time.
In the future, you may not even remember the past events, how many children you have, where you worked before, where you were born when you were a child, you may not remember clearly.
Sometimes we may occasionally forget something when we are dealing with a lot of things at the same time, or when we have difficulty concentrating, but this "forgetting" is usually remembered after reminders.
The memory decline that occurs in cognitive impairment, even after being reminded, is often impossible to recall, and can be easily distinguished.
02 Execution ability is reduced, and hands are in a hurry
In patients with cognitive impairment, in addition to memory loss, they also manifest as decreased ability to perform. Compared with the past, patients with cognitive impairment may have decreased efficiency, confusion, lack of planning, lack of concentration, etc., and the disease may not be able to do anything at all, requiring children or others to do the work.
Take cooking, in the past, the preparation of dishes can be very complete, the cooking is also very exquisite and delicious, but now there is always a lack of this and that, the dishes are becoming more and more simple, and even the order of cooking a noodle is not correct, the water has not yet boiled, and the next strip.
03 Language, comprehension, and presentation skills decline
Impairment of language function is actually very common in patients with cognitive impairment.
Early language skills may decline, in the past very talkative, funny, but now always slow to react, less content to speak, common words when speaking are simple, words are not rich, vocabulary is reduced.
Comprehension ability may also decline, will be wrong about things that are familiar to itself, difficult to understand different words with homophones, and incomprehensible to long sentences and more complex expressions.
The disease gradually develops, and there may also be a decline in expression ability, incomplete speech, or even intermittent, only half a sentence, the meaning of expression is not very clear, may be said for a long time is not well expressed, there is no logic.
The disease may also develop without being able to remember the words, familiar things can not be called names, and then may gradually say less and less, and even do not speak all day long.
04 Disorientation
Disorientation is also one of the symptoms, mainly manifested as abnormal judgment of time, place, and person.
In the early stage of cognitive impairment, it may be impossible to distinguish the time, the day of the week, and what season it is now, nor can it be speculated based on some characteristic events, such as it cannot be speculated that it is a weekend based on the child coming back to see him on the weekend, or it cannot be speculated that it appears in October according to the national day just after the end of the national day;
The location orientation is not good, which is manifested in the early days, the places that may be far away cannot be planned, the location cannot be found through the map, and in the middle period, the places where the daily life will not be able to distinguish the direction, and they will not find a home and get lost;
In the late stages, it may not be possible to distinguish between the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, etc. at home.
05 Mood and behavior changes
There are also some elderly people who can have emotional and behavioral changes, such as being in a bad mood, shouting, rolling on the ground, or not having the initiative to do things, not cleaning up when they see dishes and chopsticks, and not taking the initiative to watch TV.
They may also be indifferent, indifferent to external stimuli, unconcerned and unaffected by what is happening around them, no longer concerned about their families and understanding their feelings.
In addition, the circadian rhythm may also be disordered, do not sleep at night, make a fuss during the day, and may not be able to distinguish between day and night, get up in the middle of the night and say it is time to eat.
He may also become suspicious and suspect that others have stolen his things, from socks and clothes to passbooks, etc., and whoever takes care of him and is close to him suspects who stole it;
Or suspect that they have been abandoned, especially if their children visit less often, and the elderly living in nursing homes are more likely to have such thoughts;
You may even suspect that your wife is having an affair, and your wife will go out to buy a dish, and when she comes back, she will scold her wife, and may even beat someone.
If the elderly at home have two or more symptoms, it is recommended to go to the hospital in time for professional consultation and examination, early detection, and early treatment.
Reference: Medical Microvision official website - Professor Wang Huali,"Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly"