Open AccessOffice-based assessment of cognitive impairment
Author(s) -
Dimity Pond
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
australian journal of general practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2208-7958
DOI - 10.31128/ajgp-04-18-4553
Subject(s) - dementia , medical diagnosis , cognition , cognitive impairment , medicine , presentation (obstetrics) , test (biology) , psychology , gerontology , psychiatry , disease , pathology , surgery , paleontology , biology
Dementia is an increasingly prevalent condition, currently affecting over 400,000 Australians, and this is expected to rise to over one million by 2056. Diagnosis of dementia is a clinical one, as there is no single well-defined blood test, imaging or cognitive function test that validly diagnoses dementia. There are also many causes of cognitive impairment other than dementia, which need to be identified or excluded. General practitioners (GPs) are on the frontline of presentation and will therefore play an increasingly important role in identification and management.