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Cognitive impairment; a new understanding of ALSMarch 13, 2006
In a study of 40 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), about one-third showed evidence of cognitive impairment.
New evidence suggests ALS may have an impact on cognition (thinking, learning and memory).
Previous research has estimated that anywhere from 2 to 52 percent of patients with ALS also experience cognitive impairment.
In a sampling of 40 patients (1991-1992) with ALS, 12 of the 40 sampled (30 percent), showed evidence of cognitive impairment, including 9 individuals (23 percent), who met the criteria for dementia.
Survival data from public and medical records were available in January 2004. Of the sampling, 38 of the 40 patients were diseased, having lived 3.4 years after testing.
Cognitive impairment and dementia did not appear to be associated with survival.
"Free recall, executive function and naming were most impaired in ALS patients with dementia." Future studies using testing and diagnostic criteria specific to frontotemporal lobar dementia, the type believed to be associated with ALS and other motor neuron diseases, may find that the percentage of ALS patients with cognitive impairment or dementia is even higher, the writers concluded.
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