Cognitive impairment approach for primary health care physicians

Description

The cognitive problems have a high prevalence, a high social economic and public health impact, being an important cause of morbimortality and dependence and causing an important psycosocial impact in patients and their families/caregivers. Because of these reasons, it was created in Chile the National Programme of Dementia, which is in a pilot phase from 2017 and the inclusion of the Alzheimer and other Dementia to the Explicit Health Guarantees in October 2019, in which primary care plays a leading role. Is of vital importance that the physician who works in primary care, have the necessary skills to deal with patients living with dementia, in a comprehensive manner with an appropriate technical medicine based approach, under the principles of the comprehensive health care model. The objectives of this article is to review the epidemiology and impact of the cognitive impairment as a great public health problem, identify the main cognitive tests and their usefulness in the clinic evaluation, know the diagnostic study process and integral management in the context of Primary Care of a patient with suspicion and/or confirmation of cognitive impairment.