Normal Aging and Cognitive Impairment Revisited

Extract

In psychogeriatrics, clinicians are often confronted with the problem of whether a patient's clinical disorder is associated with an organic brain syndrome. Such pathological cerebral changes and the associated impairments are often very difficult to distinguish from “normal,” nonpathological changes. Everyone has to cope with some limitations in old age. Having to cope with changes in social position and social environment and with the loss of certain abilities is part of the aging process, but in psychogeriatrics, attention must go beyond the assessment of how a person deals with loss. A so-called normal aging person can overcome such losses, compensating for deficits in a particular area by drawing on skills acquired through a lifetime of experience.