User talk:DanielJanko/sandbox

Cognitive impairment and therapy [reworked draft]

Cognitive impairment is indisputably one of the biggest threats following stroke. The prevalence of cognitive impairment is quite high, however, according to Sun et al., [1]

it varies based on the population within which the stroke has occurred. Many different causes can contribute to the acquirement of cognitive impairment after stroke. Among the most common are lesions on specific anatomical structures, such as the hippocampus or entorhinal cortex, white matter lesions, and cerebral microbleeds.

There has not been any medication developed yet to treat cognitive deficits resulting from strokes. Although some drugs have shown to be helpful with executive function problems, neither of them has demonstrated significant effects on activities of daily living. Thus, it is important that more work is done on pharmacotherapy and its potential benefits for patients suffering from cognitive decline after stroke. [1]

Ongoing research has examined the use of cognitive therapy which consists of intense cognitive training. One of the biggest problems of cognitive training is its actual transfer to the real world. Even though some therapies have been proven to produce improvements on specific tasks, the patients did not experience any improvements in their everyday functioning. For this reason, scientific teams have been trying to develop a reliable transfer package that could be used to train and improve instrumental activities of daily living. [2] Daily instrumental activities can be understood as those activities that allow an individual to live independently. Even though they are not necessary for living, however, these activities may significantly improve the quality of life. Examples of these activities include cooking, transportation, laundry, and managing finances. [3]