Forgot your keys? Should you be worried? Diagnosing memory disorders

Recent talk about President Biden’s memory, as mentioned in a Department of Justice report, has many people wondering about their own cognitive skills, especially when it comes to things like misplacing items like car keys or forgetting why you opened the fridge.

Should we be alarmed?

Like every other body part, the brain changes as we age, a brain expert told WINK News.

“There’s some changes with memory that are just normal day-to-day fluctuations that start even as early as 30,” explained Lee Health neuropsychologist Dr. AmberRose Reale.

She assesses cognitive disorders. She told WINK News health and medical reporter Amy Oshier that occasional forgetfulness is perfectly normal. It’s the big changes we worry about.

“Where we’re having impact in functioning day to day. So we have cognitive changes, and now we can’t handle our bills. We can’t figure out where we’re going when we drive. We’re forgetting our medications consistently. Bigger functional impairment, that’s a major disorder,” Reale said. “And when it does meet that criteria of functional impairment, and we could see change over time that’s progressively worsening, that does progress over time.”

Lots of things can impact brain function, including stroke, head trauma, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia as well as long-term health conditions.

While it’s natural to wonder if memory lapses are the sign of something more serious, Dr. Reale stresses the importance of screening cognition as a whole.

“We have main domains of memory, language, attention, executive functioning, motor functioning, processing speed, and so we try to hit each one of those,” she said.

Her screenings are much longer and go deeper than an annual physical.

Diagnosing a brain disorder that affects judgment involves comparing a patient’s test results to a large data set of people in the same demographic.

“That shows what is typical for aging, and that’s how we determine strengths and weaknesses based upon that performance,” said Reale.