New guidelines for diagnosing the mental decline that can come with several diseases of aging may create confusion among doctors and patients about who has early Alzheimer’s disease and who simply has mild cognitive impairment, a new report warns.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a mental decline in its earliest stages that’s not a normal part of aging. Under previous guidelines, a patient was considered to have MCI if he or she had marked, but mild, memory problems but was otherwise functioning normally, explained Dr. John Morris, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.