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Mild cognitive impairment: What questions to ask the neurologist?

Brain & Nervous System | Last Active: Apr 17 10:02am | Replies (85)
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@sb4ca

Thank you for this informative response. I meet with my neurologist on Monday. Losing tract of days is apparent here, lol. I've never heard of neuropsychologists and will ask my neurologist about it. I had white matter changes in my brain starting in my 40's and the new MRI says that has progressed due to small vessel disease. I know this because I already have the MRI report. They are in the front of my brain and in the parietal lobes for whatever that's worth. The main 2 errors on the simple cognitive test were the inability to draw a 3-D box and retrieval of the 7 words I was supposed to remember but that is self-evaluation because I knew I failed those. He didn't tell me what specific tests I failed. I am now 64 years old so unclear how much cognitive decline is normal for my age.

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Replies to "Thank you for this informative response. I meet with my neurologist on Monday. Losing tract of..."
Helen, Volunteer Mentor | @naturegirl5 | Jul 9, 2023

@sb4ca. In my view the simple cognitive testing that the neurologist gave you in the office is a screening test. This is like getting your blood pressure checked, you find out your BP is high, and so your doctor does more investigation into why it is high. Your MRI results are very helpful in ruling out what may or may not be an explanation for the cognitive symptoms you’ve described, but more cognitive testing will provide you with more detailed information.

Here is a description of a neuropsychologist and what this specialist does:

Clinical Neuropsychology
— https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/neuropsychology#:~:text=Clinical%20Neuropsychology%20is%20a%20specialty,and%20the%20design%20of%20effective

What you have described with word retrieval problems, spelling, and forgetting where you are in your sentences is not a sign of normal aging. A neuropsychologist can help you to sort that out.

Is there a memory diagnostic center or memory clinic near you? These are the clinics that specialize in the questions that you are asking about yourself. By the way, even though many clinics have the word « dementia » or « Alzheimer » in the title does not mean that a person who goes there for evaluation has dementia. Their mission is to sort out what is normal aging, what is mild cognitive impairment, and what is dementia (there are several different types).

Here is an example of a group of University of Wisconsin affiliated clinics. Many academic medical centers have a memory clinic.

UW Memory Clinic Network List

— https://wai.wisc.edu/memory-clinic-network-list/

Does this information help you to figure out what to ask your doctor?

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