Neurocognitive disorders encompass those disorders in which the main symptom is a deficit in cognitive function that has not been present since birth or early childhood, and is therefore acquired.
This includes dementia of the Alzheimer’s type, vascular dementia, HIV dementia, Lewy body dementia, dementia due to head trauma or dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease, among many other less frequent ones, such as Huntington’s disease.
When we talk about deficits in cognitive function, we mean that higher functions are affected such as complex attention, memory, learning, executive function (planning, decision-making, working memory, mental flexibility…), language (expressive and receptive), emotion recognition, and perceptual-motor skills (for example, facial recognition, drawing, copying objects…).
A person may initially experience lapses and forgetfulness that become more evident over time. They may become disoriented in familiar places or show changes in personality.
It is very important to distinguish dementia from pseudodementia. Older adults with depression often experience some symptoms that resemble dementia without necessarily having dementia. With appropriate treatment, these symptoms resolve.