IOM Issues Guidelines For Practitioners To Enhance Cognitive Health

the Psychiatry Advisor take:

A panel of experts convened by the Institute of Medicine has recommended how health care professionals can help enhance cognitive health in their older adult patients, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The panel also made a distinction between typical cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The experts define cognitive aging as the gradual but noticeable changes in mental functions that happen as people age. "Cognitive aging is not a disease or a level of impairment — it is a lifelong process that affects everyone," said Sharon K. Inouye, MD, MPH, of Harvard Medical School.

In a 2014 survey from AARP, 93% of participants reported that maintaining brain health was a top priority. This spurred the Institute of Medicine to convene a panel to come up with intervention techniques, education for practitioners, and ways to raise public awareness.

The panel recommends that health care practitioners take the following steps to help maintain cognitive health in their older adult patients:

• Conduct a formal cognitive assessment to detect cognitive impairment
• Screen for risk factors such as alcohol use, smoking history, and diet
• Promote benefit of physical exercise, lifelong learning, social engagement and adequate sleep
• Highlight importance of reducing cardiovascular risks such as hypertension and diabetes
• Identify persons at high risk for delirium before or at hospital admission and institute preventive strategies
• Minimize prescription of inappropriate medications

While the panel believes more research is needed to better understand cognitive aging, practitioners can still play a key role in helping to preserve cognitive health in their patients.