Psychological Disorder and Cognition

Psychological disorders such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety disorders affect cognition, making it difficult for the patient to cope with his or her environment. The disorders negatively affect potions of the brain and some symptoms of the disorder may arise from these cognitive breaches first, rather than the opposite way around. For a patient to become schizophrenic, for instance, executive function deficits are considered a phenotypic landmark, however they are not as prominent in bipolar disorder, global deficits in memory, attention and processing speed are observed and disorganized language is observed during episodes. Improvement is not generally observed with medication. While most of the above is similar, if less severe, for bipolar disorder, recovery is possible although some of the deficit is still observed during the phase. For PTSD, only global deficit in attention and memory are observed, and medication has proven effective for mitigating the deficit. The article goes on to also describe the general deficits of depression and anxiety as well.

The article focuses on the implications these deficits have on nursing. Although a person may be on medication to improve the symptoms of the disorder itself, the cognitive deficits should also be treated with medication if possible, or it might be dangerous for the patient to be alone in the world. It could lead to problems with remembering appointments or driving, as a high brain processing speed is needed to drive safely on the road.

There are many secondary treatments and therapies for such secondary symptoms. While they may not always be fool proof, it is dangerous for cognitive deficits to go unchecked. Similarly, disorders such as schizophrenia can be caught before the onset of the more sever symptoms just by looking out for the cognitive deficits first and helping before the disorder gets any worse.

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