Week 9 Discussion: Prescribing for Older Adults and Pregnant Women

Mild Neurocognitive Disorder DSM-5 331.83 (G31.84) in the older adult population Neurocognitive disorder Alzheimer's disease is 60-80% causal of dementia which is a typical term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to impede daily life. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia. Alzheimer’s is a specific disease. Dementia is not. Dementia describes a group of symptoms related to a decline in memory, reasoning, or other thinking skills. Numerous different types of dementia exist, and many conditions cause it. Mixed dementia is a condition in which brain changes of more than one type of dementia occur simultaneously. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 60-80% of dementia cases In the U.S., there are five FDA-approved medications that treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease by temporarily helping cognition (donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine, memantine, and donepezil/memantine combination). Aricept (do nepezil) is a drug that has been approved by the FDA has been divided into categories that refer to the degree of the disease: mild-to-moderate or moderate-to-severe. For mild-to-moderate disease, cholinesterase inhibitors such as donepezil (Aricept; also approved for moderate-to-severe disease) According to the National Institute on Aging, Aricept, and other drugs such as galantamine (Razadyne), and rivastigmine (Exelon) are prescribed and may help interrupt or prevent symptoms from becoming worse for a limited time and may help control some behavioral symptoms Rabins,. et al, (2014). The off-label medication that I chose is Seroquel, and there are others such as antipsychotics, antidepressants, anti-anxiety, and mood stabilizers all of which change brain function and result in alterations in perception, mood, or consciousness.