Peer Responses: Length: A minimum of 275 words per post, not including reference

Peer Responses:
Length: A minimum of 275 words per post, not including references
Citations: At least one high-level scholarly reference in APA per post from within the last 5 years
As people gets older there are changes that occurs physically and mentally. There are age related cognitive impairment that gets manifested and physical limitations that may have pathological causes. As a part of the wellness check that is being done to the patient , a complete physical and history has to be done to rule out disease process that may contribute to both physical and cognitive changes.
The mobility decline for a 72 year old may be brought about by arthritis, pain from bone and joint diseases, lack of physical activity that may lead to muscle weakness and deconditioning, impaired strength and balance and cognitive decline (Freiberger et al., 2020).
Assessing cognitive decline will involve assessment of learning and memory, language, executive function, complex attention, perceptual-motor and social cognition) (Kumar et al., 2022). There are different tools available to assess cognitive function and impairment. They can vary from brief to extensive evaluation for both patient to answer and their companion’s input. The common tools used by PCP’s are Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clock draw test (CDT), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Mini Cognitive Assessment Instrument (Mini-Cog) (Small, G., 2022). Although , the implementation of the tools are helpful, practitioners should try to rule out reversible conditions that can lead to cognitive impairment such as medication, hormone imbalance electrolyte and vitamin deficiencies and even depression.
The differential diagnosis that may applicable for this patient is Alzheimer’s Disease, Mild cognitive impairment, and Vascular dementia.
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that has no cure. Once a diagnosis is established using the aforementioned tools, appropriate staging of cognition impairment is needed in order to put a plan of care. The treatment plan will start with providing supportive care to the patient and their families. Addressing the co-existing disease and managing it. Make sure to provide safe environment for the patient and emphasize the importance of daily activity. Supportive care from OT and PT will also be recommended (Cash, J. & Glass, C., 2020).
There are also pharmacologic treatment that could be started. Although, as previously mentioned there is no treatment for AD, there are medications that can slow the progression of the disease and manage symptoms: Cholinesterase Inhibitor(Rivastigmine, Donepezil, Galantamine) , N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) ( Mamentine, Namzaric) and Antidepressants (Cash, J. & Glass, C., 2020).
Follow up every 3 months is necessary for these patients to monitor their disease progression and monitor medication efficacy (Cash, J. & Glass, C., 2020).