On 3 February, the National Task Group (NTG) and Lumind IDSC Foundation released their new report, which focuses on the barriers to determining mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in adults with neuroatypical conditions. These conditions include autism, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, Down syndrome, and significant sensory impairments. Neuroatypical conditions (NAC) can affect intellectual development and function, cognition, movement and communication. To understand whether processes for assessing and diagnosing mild cognitive impairment and dementia are adapted to accommodate these conditions, NTG and Lumind IDSC Foundation convened a consultative panel of experts on NAC.
The panel was tasked with identifying barriers, special needs and required adaptations for examining adults with NAC during assessments of MCI and dementia. The Expert Panel concluded that current US guidelines for assessing for MCI or dementia do not provide sufficient information for assessing adults with NAC. They identified a number of challenges, highlighting the fact that many commonly-used assessments are not able to accommodate the cognitive, behavioural and motor differences that characterise many NAC. For example, people with NAC may experience difficulties with their vision, comprehension or communication, which would benefit from specialised instruments to assess MCI or dementia. In addition, clinicians may not have sufficient awareness of the nature of aging in people with NAC.
To address these challenges, the Expert Panel developed a series of recommendations. Firstly, they called for federal guidance to be broadened, to include adaptations of assessment practices for people with NAC. Second, they recommended enhancing the education of healthcare practitioners, to increase their understanding of how to differentially diagnose MCI or dementia in people with NAC, and how to plan post-diagnostic care. Finally, they called for more research to generate evidence-based information on assessing NACs as part of cognitive impairment screenings. The report, ‘Examining Adults with Neuroatypical Conditions for MCI/Dementia During Cognitive Impairment Assessments: Report of the Neuroatypical Conditions Expert Consultative Panel’, can be accessed and downloaded on the NTG’s website:
