Sociodemographic and clinical changes over time of individuals evaluated for cognitive disturbances: good or bad news?

In recent years, “prevention” and “early diagnosis” have been growingly discussed and explored in the field of cognitive disorders. Such increased attention to cognitive disturbances and neurodegenerative conditions may constitute a key step for achieving early/timely diagnosis of dementing illnesses. At the same time, it may generate possible issues (such as a greater proportion of negative diagnostic procedures with potential misuse of resources) that should be acknowledged by health care systems. In this report, we present exploratory analyses aimed at investigating the sociodemographic and clinical changes over time of all the individuals who have been cognitively assessed in a Memory Clinic between 2002 and 2014. Overall, individuals evaluated for cognitive disturbances have gradually become younger, more educated, and less impaired in cognitive and physical functions at their first cognitive assessment. To date, nearly 1 of 4 individuals completing a neuropsychological evaluation has no objective cognitive deficits, thus presenting subjective cognitive complaints. Based on these findings, the development and implementation of strategies for improving the referral to memory clinics is strongly needed.