Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T05:39:26.974Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Age-associated memory impairment and related disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John T. O'Brien
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Complaints of poor memory are common in the healthy elderly and to many it may seem unsurprising that cognitive function declines with ‘normal’ ageing. Virtually every biological system alters with age and, just as a 70-year-old cannot run as fast or hear as well as when he or she was 20, it is perhaps inevitable that cognitive function also becomes impaired. However, far from being straightforward, the nature, classification and clinical significance of age-related cognitive changes that fall short of dementia remain a most controversial and difficult area (see O'Brien & Beats, 1994; Dal Forno & Kawas, 1995). The recent emergence of new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (donepezil and rivastigmine) and related disorders has emphasised the need to study groups with milder degrees of cognitive impairment. It is necessary to determine whether such conditions are benign and non-progressive, or harbingers of progressive dementia and so appropriate conditions to target for early therapeutic intervention. The presence of age-related cognitive changes raises other important issues including why such changes occur, how they should be classified and whether, even if ‘benign’, they can and should be treated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in Psychiatric Treatment , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , July 1999 , pp. 279 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 1999 

References

American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn) (DSM–IV). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. M., Hubbard, G. R., Coghill, G. R. et al (1983) The effect of advanced old age on neurone content of the cerebral cortex; observations with an automatic image analyzer point counting method. Journal of Neurological Sciences, 58, 235–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birren, J. E., Woods, A. M. & Williams, M. V. (1979) Speed of behaviour as an indicator of age changes and the integrity of the nervous system. In Brain Function in Old Age (eds Hoffmeister, F. & Muller, C.) pp. 10–14. Berlin: Springer–Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Botwinick, J. (1977) Intellectual abilities. In Handbook of the Psychology of Aging (eds Birren, J. E. & Schaie, K. W.) pp. 580–605. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.Google Scholar
Brayne, C. & Calloway, P. (1988) Normal ageing, impaired cognitive function, and senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type: a continuum? Lancet, i, 1265–1267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, H. (1955) Organisation of the cerebral cortex: III. A study of aging in the human cerebral cortex. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 102, 511–56.Google Scholar
Buell, S. J. & Coleman, P. D. (1979) Dendritic growth in the aged human brain and failure of growth in senile dementia. Science, 206, 854–856.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Canadian Study of Health and Ageing (1994) Risk factors for Alzheimer's disease in Canada. Neurology, 44, 2073–2080.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craik, F. I. M. & Byrd, M. (1982) Ageing and cognitive deficits; the role of attentional resources. In Ageing and the Cognitive Processes (eds Craik, F. I. M. & Trehub, S. E.) pp. 191–211. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crook, T., Bartus, R. T., Ferris, S. H. et al (1986) Age-associated memory impairment: proposed diagnostic criteria and measures of clinical change – report of a National Institute of Mental Health work group. Developmental Neuropsychology, 2, 261–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dal Forno, G. & Kawas, C. H. (1995) Cognitive problems in the elderly. Current Opinion in Neurology, 8, 256–261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E. & McHugh, P. R. (1975) ‘Mini-Mental State’: a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giannakopoulos, P., Hof, P. R., Michel, J. P. et al (1997) Cerebral cortex pathology in ageing and Alzheimer's disease: a quantitative survey of large hospital-based geriatric and psychiatric cohorts. Brain Research – Brain Research Reviews, 25, 217–245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hanninen, T., Hallikainen, M., Koivisto, K. et al (1995) A follow-up study of age-associated memory impairment: neuropsychological predictors of dementia. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 43, 1007–1015.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hanninen, T., Hallikainen, M. & Koivisto, K. (1997) Decline of frontal lobe functions in subjects with age-associated memory. Neurology, 48, 148–153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hof, P. R., Giannakopoulos, P. & Bouras, C. (1996) The neuropathological changes associated with normal brain ageing. Histology & Histopathology, 11, 1075–1088.Google Scholar
Horn, J. L. & Cattell, R. B. (1967) Age differences in fluid and crystallised intelligence. Acta Psychologia, 26, 107–129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howieson, D. B., Dame, A., Camicioli, R. et al (1997) Cognitive markers preceding Alzheimer's dementia in the healthiest oldest old. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 45, 584–589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendell, R. E. (1989) Clinical validity. Psychological Medicine, 19, 45–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kral, V. A. (1958) Neuropsychiatric observations in an old people's home. Journal of Gerontology, 13, 169–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kral, V. A. (1962) Senescent forgetfulness: benign and malignant. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 86, 257–260.Google ScholarPubMed
Kral, V. A. (1978) Benign sensecent forgetfulness. In Alzheimer's Disease: Senile Dementia and Related Disorders (eds Katzman, R., Terry, B. D., Bick, K. L.) pp. 47–51. New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Laakso, M. P., Soininen, H., Partanen, K. et al (1998) MRI of the hippocampus in Alzheimer's disease: sensitivity, specificity, and analysis of the incorrectly classified subjects. Neurobiology of Ageing, 19, 23–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levy, R. (1994) Aging-associated cognitive decline. International Psychogeriatrics, 6, 63.Google ScholarPubMed
Nelson, A. E. & Dannefer, D. (1992) Aged heterogeneity: fact or fiction? The fate of diversity in gerontological research. Gerontologist, 32, 17–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Brien, J. T. (1997) The ‘glucocorticoid cascade’ hypothesis in man. Prolonged stress may cause permanent brain damage. British Journal of Psychiatry, 170, 199–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, J. T. & Beats, B. (1994) Benign sensecent forgetfulness and age-associated memory impairment. In Dementia (eds Levy, R. & Burns, A.) pp. 295–308. London: Chapman & Hall.Google ScholarPubMed
O'Brien, J. T., Beats, B., Hill, K. et al (1992) Do subjective memory complaints precede dementia? A 3 year follow up of patients presenting with supposed ‘benign sensecent forgetfulness’. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 7, 481–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, D. W., Politt, P., Roth, M. et al (1990) Memory complaints and impairment in normal, depressed and demented elderly persons identified in a community survey. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47, 224–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, D. W., Politt, P., Jones, B. J. et al (1991) Continued clinical validation of dementia diagnosed in the community using the Cambridge Mental Disorders of the Elderly Examination. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 83, 41–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Palumbo, B., Parnetti, L., Nocentini, G. et al (1997) Apolipoprotein-E genotype in normal ageing, age-associated memory, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia patients. Neuroscience Letters, 231, 59–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parnetti, L., Lowenthal, D. T., Presciutti, O. et al (1996) IHMRS, MRI-based hippocampal volumetry, and 99mTc-HMPAO-SPECT in normal ageing, age-associated memory impairment, and probable Alzheimer's disease. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 44, 133–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabbitt, P. & Abson, V. (1990) ‘Lost and found’; Some logical and methodological limitations of self-report questionnaires as tools to study cognitive ageing. British Journal of Psychology, 81, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reisberg, B., Ferris, S. H., Shulman, E. et al (1986) Longitudinal course of normal ageing and progressive dementia of the Alzheimer's type; a prospective study of 106 subjects over 3.6 year mean interval. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 10, 571–578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Riedel, W. J. & Jolles, J. (1996) Cognition enhancers in age-related cognitive decline. Drugs and Ageing, 8, 245–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ritchie, K. (1995) Mental status examination of an exceptional case of longevity. J. C. aged 118 years. British Journal of Psychiatry, 166, 229–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, E. & Guze, S. B. (1970) Establishment of diagnostic validity in psychiatric illness; its application to schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 983–987.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roth, M., Tym, E., Mountjoy, C. et al (1986) CAMDEX; a standardised instrument for the diagnosis of mental disorder in the elderly with special reference to the early detection of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 698–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sattler, J. M. (1982) Age effects on Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – revised tests. Journal of Consultative Clinical Psychology, 50, 785–786.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaie, K. W. (1983) The Seattle longitudinal study: a 21-year exploration of psychometric intelligence in adulthood. In Longitudinal Studies of Adult Psychological Development (ed. Schaie, K. E.) pp. 64–138. New York: Guildford Press.Google Scholar
Schaie, K. W., Maitland, S. B., Willis, S. L. et al (1998) Longitudinal invariance of adult psychometric ability factor structures across 7 years. Psychology and Ageing, 13, 8–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, G., Ivnik, R. J., Peterson, R. C. et al (1991) Age-associated memory impairment diagnoses: problems of reliability and concerns for terminology. Psychology and Aging, 6, 551–558.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Terry, R. D., DeTeresa, R. & Hansen, L. A. (1987) Neocortical cell counts in normal human aging. Annals of Neurology, 21, 530–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomlinson, B. E. & Henderson, G. (1976) Some quantitative cerebral findings in normal and demented old people. In Neurobiology of Ageing (eds Terry, R. D. & Gershon, S.) pp. 183–204. New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1992) International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (10th revision) (ICD–10). Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Wulff, H. R. (1976) Rational Diagnosis and Treatment. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.