Home » News & Events » Neurologists Explain What Mild Cognitive Impairment Means
by Deborah Kan for being patient
In 2020, 66-year-old business executive Mike Zuendel noticed something was amiss. “Someone once said, ‘Don’t worry if you misplace your keys, as long as you know what they’re for,’” he recalled. But after an incident where he looked all over his house for his cell phone — it had been in his hand the whole time — he realized, it was time to see a neurologist. After some cognitive testing, he came home with a diagnosis: mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
MCI is often misunderstood as an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease, but according to neurologists and neuropsychologists, the reality is more complex.
“There are a lot of reasons why people have cognitive impairment,” Dr. Sarah Kremen, a neurologist at the University of California Los Angeles told Being Patient. “You can’t jump to the conclusion that ‘I have mild cognitive impairment, I must have Alzheimer’s disease.’”
While MCI can be an early sign of a neurodegenerative condition, many people with MCI do not go on to develop dementia. In some cases, cognitive changes are caused by treatable or even reversible conditions such as sleep disorders, depression, or medication side effects.
MCI is when someone suffers from a mild decline in cognitive abilities that isn’t part of normal aging, but also isn’t bad enough to interfere with independent function. It’s a common condition that affects millions of people around the world.
Research indicates that around 10 to 15 percent of individuals with MCI progress to dementia annually, meaning the majority of MCI patients do not experience rapid cognitive decline.
MCI arises from various causes, which can include neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or vascular issues. But it can also be caused by:
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