Changes in memory need to be evaluated

You can remember the room number of your first grade class and complete nursery rhymes from childhood that you haven’t thought about for years. You remember what you were doing at the time you heard that Pearl Harbor was bombed.

But now you want to introduce your longtime next-door neighbor to a visiting relative and your mind goes blank. Or two weeks ago you put a valuable present in a safe place, but now it’s time to wrap it and you can’t find it, even after hours of searching. Or you walk into a room to get something and completely forget what you were looking for when you get into the room.

Don’t panic if you think you are losing it. About two-thirds of all Americans complain of memory problems and occasional absentmindedness. The problem is frustrating and perhaps even frightening at times.

When does the problem become serious?

Age-related declines in cognitive functions – including speed of information-processing, certain kinds of short-term memory, problem-solving skills and abstract thinking – do decline with age. Older people are often more distractible and less able to filter out stimuli that is irrelevant to the task they are working on.

These differences, however, vary greatly from individual to individual and depend on many factors besides age.

Many researchers and clinicians agree that three criteria need to be considered when evaluating the severity of cognitive change:

• A dramatic change in the person’s level of cognitive functioning during a relatively short period of time, such as several months or perhaps a few years. Any rapid alternation in the individual’s cognitive status needs to be evaluated because normal age-related changes occur gradually over a period of decades.

• The second criterion used to evaluate age-related changes in memory include the person’s level of cognitive performance relative to peers his or her own age. Concern is raised when these declines deviate significantly from prior levels of performance.

• Age-related changes are obviously serious if they affect the individual’s ability to function in normal everyday activities, especially when the individual loses the ability to adapt and accommodate to these changes. Since this does not often happen before the age of 70 or 80, significant difficulties prior this time are often a cause for concern.

If these conditions exist, it is advisable to seek medical evaluation. However, remember that there are several possible explanations for these difficulties, including metabolic disorders caused by nutrition and drug interactions. Reversal of the problem can occur with medical intervention.

Next week I will continue my discussion of age-related memory changes.