How do you differentiate cognitive impairment from normal age-related cognitive decline?

It can be tricky to differentiate normal aging from true cognitive impairment. I think the key ingredients are objective cognitive testing and bringing in a trusted informant.

When a patient or a carepartner expresses a memory concern, or you wonder about memory during a routine evaluation, the firs...

Dr. @Dr. First Last's answer is right on target.

I have a couple of additional tips when taking a history.

First: normal cognitive decline would include certain features and not others. Normal aging typically leads to slower processing, more effort with multitasking and learning something new, and m...