Ask Alex: No Treatment for MCI?

Dr. Alex Bahar-Fuchs is NewDays' Director of Neuropsychology and a leading expert in cognitive interventions for older adults.

Q: I was recently diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, but my doctor told me there's nothing we can do except "eat well, exercise, and prepare for decline." This feels devastating and hopeless. Are there really no treatments available?

Dr. Alex:

I am often asked, "Are there really no treatments for MCI? This seems rather bleak." Well, the question is quite complex because this depends a little bit on what we mean here by treatment, and what is specifically that we want to treat.

In a nutshell, treatment may or may not imply a cure. Many treatments aim at keeping a condition stable or slow a deterioration where one is expected, rather than curing a condition. In addition, the treatment may focus on the symptoms, such as memory problems, the underlying disease, as in the biology, in this case the abnormal buildup of certain proteins, or both.

To make matters more complicated, in complex diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, treating the biological cause of the disease, as in the abnormal buildup of a protein called beta-amyloid, does not improve the symptoms if the treatment commences when dementia has already developed. A wide range of non-drug treatments have been shown to improve some symptoms in people with MCI and in people with dementia.

Among these treatments, a group of cognitive interventions, such as cognitive training, rehabilitation, and stimulation, have been subjected to hundreds of clinical trials to examine their potential benefits. Some of these trials were small and preliminary, whereas others were large and powerful. But taken together, they show that these approaches lead to important benefits for older people with and without cognitive decline.

As is usually the case in medicine, it often takes years for evidence to be fully translated into clinical practice, and the situation with cognitive treatments is no different. However, over the past 10 years, more and more large efforts to synthesize the evidence have been published showing support for cognitive interventions. And so in recent years, they're being increasingly endorsed and recommended by international and national health authorities, such as the World Health Organization, the Alzheimer's Association, and the American Academy of Neurology.

The awareness regarding these effective treatments is still limited among many healthcare professionals and in the community, but this will likely change in coming years. And many specialists and general practitioners are excited when they learn that there are in fact treatments that have substantial benefits for their patients, even if these treatments are not considered a cure.

You can learn more about the science behind these treatment options on our science page.

You deserve better than "wait and see." You deserve access to the same evidence-based treatments that have helped thousands of people strengthen their cognitive abilities and maintain their independence.

Ready to take control? Contact NewDays today to schedule a free introductory call. Let us show you what's truly possible when science meets hope.

Have a question for Dr. Alex? Submit your cognitive health questions to hello@newdays.ai and it might be featured in our next Ask Alex post.