Although most people begin to experience some memory lapses as they get older, many such lapses are entirely normal and have little impact on our daily functioning. Forgetting where you left things you use regularly, such as keys, glasses or a wallet, having trouble recalling the name of an acquaintance or public figure, or the details of a particular conversation, having words “on the tip of your tongue,” becoming distracted easily or occasionally forgetting an appointment, are all a part of normal aging and not necessarily reason for concern.
When the information you are forgetting is no longer insignificant and memory or other cognitive abilities begin to negatively impact your daily life or raise concern among people close to you, such as frequently missing appointments or social engagements, forgetting to take your medication as prescribed, becoming confused or lost in a familiar environment, being unable to recall the details of something you just read or saw minutes before, it may be time to see your doctor.
Many treatable conditions can lead to memory loss or mimic dementia, but are reversible. A thorough physical examination will often reveal the problem and guide treatment successfully. Physicians regularly refer their patients for a neurocognitive examination as part of this workup, as patterns of performance on tests of attention, memory, language or problem-solving, among others, can be very specific to certain disorders and help discriminate between them. For example, patterns of test performance differ between vascular disease and cortical-type diseases such as Alzheimer’s, or between normal aging and mild cognitive impairment.
Early detection is the best method of optimizing treatment for true cognitive decline. We invite you to contact us for a consultation to determine whether testing may be right for you.