Cognitive Disorders

Cognitive Disorders

COGNITION IS THE BRAIN’S ability to process, retain, and use information. Cognitive abilities include reasoning, judgment, perception, attention, comprehension, and memory. These cognitive abilities are essential for many important tasks, including making decisions, solving problems, in-terpreting the environment, and learning new information.

A cognitive disorder is a disruption or impairment in these higher-level functions of the brain. Cognitive disorders can have devastating effects on the ability to function in daily life. They can cause people to forget the names of immediate family members, to be unable to perform daily house-hold tasks, and to neglect personal hygiene (Davis, 2005).

The primary categories of cognitive disorders are delirium, dementia, and amnestic disorders. All involve impairment of cognition, but they vary with respect to cause, treatment, prognosis, and effect on clients and fam-ily members or caregivers. It emphasizes not only the care of clients with cognitive disorders but also the needs of their caregivers.