Clinicians will be faced with a rapidly aging and increasingly complex patient population. In the so called normal aging the brain undergoes gross and microscopic changes; some of these changes are also found in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
A substantial portion of elderly people experience decline in motor and mental capacities; but we musk remark the great variability of the decline. Slowness in movement initiation, tremor and postural instability may be found, mimicking Parkinson's disease, but muscle tone is usually normal.
The individual` s accumulated lated knowledge base is respected till older age, but the ability to respond quickly to novel events is slowed and limited. Episodic memory falters substantially with age, whereas semantic memory shows only modest decline.
All the survivors will age. We must learn to accept aging, to try to keep our fitness but knowing that we must accept the inescapable. Old age has his own values; we must look for them.
Donoso, A. . (1999). Envejecimiento del sistema nervioso central. Revista Hospital Clínico Universidad De Chile, 10(1), pp. 58–64. https://doi.org/10.5354/2735-7996.1999.80824
