Resumen

CASANOVA SOTOLONGO, Pedro; CASANOVA CARRILLO, Pedro  y  CASANOVA CARRILLO, Carlos. Cognitive deterioration at the third age. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2004, vol.20, n.5-6. ISSN 0864-2125.

In the normal and pathological aging, amnesic dysfunction is the most common cognitive disorder with detriment to the quality of life, to the capacity for new learning processes, and in the evokation of valuable information. The deterioration of memory associated with age describes a decline of memory without any other cause that explains it. It has been suggested that it is a normal phenomenon in the elderly more than an initial stage of dementia or other disease. The early detection of memory disorders is important as frequent and prodromic signs of the demential syndromes. Depression is a risk factor that should always be taken into account. The relative facility of its diagnosis by clinical, neuropsychological and imaging methods, makes it an efficient tool in the hands of the family physicians for the control and classification of the older adult in his communities.

Palabras clave : Dementia; cognitive deterioration; Alzheimer's disease; aging; risk factors; memory.