Mental Decline in Normal Aging: A Review

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Abstract
A considerable degree of mental decline is evident in most persons of advanced age. This article argues that this is due to a life-span deterioration, beginning in early adulthood, and that it is not an artifact of motor or mental slowness or educational disadvantage in. the elderly; nor is it attributable to a cohort effect. The decline is seen not as natural but as a subclinical dementia that is produced by small pathological changes in the brain due to various medical/pathological conditions, some of which are treatable. (J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 1988;1:144-158)