Cognitive Impairment and Rehabilitation in Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

A wealth of evidence emphasizes on the link between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and cognitive impairment (CI). CI is generally accepted as a decline in memory, learning capacity, concentration, or decision-making, leading to functional impairment. The role of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as a predictive factor of AD and the CI linked to the establishment and progression of AD have been discussed in the context of epidemiology, genetics, pathophysiology, pathology, and clinical practice. AD-associated CI has been also addressed as a source of socioeconomic burden urging for the development of therapeutic interventions. Cognitive rehabilitation (CR) is a complementary non-pharmaceutical treatment for AD consisting of cognitive stimulation and training methods. Based on the neuronal plasticity concept, CR aims at increasing AD patients’ functional status and retarding their mental decline. Although the method has encouraging results in several studies, there is still controversy as far as its efficacy is concerned and further research ought to be conducted before incorporating CR in AD’s treatment plan globally. CR drawbacks should be addressed and counteracted in this context, while the current CR approach may be ameliorated through errorless learning techniques.