Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) happens when you experience a slight — but noticeable — decline in mental abilities compared to others your age. Mental abilities include:

You may notice the decline in your abilities, or a loved one might. But the changes aren’t severe enough to interfere with daily, routine activities of life.

It’s natural and expected to have some gradual mental decline as you age. For example, learning new information may take longer than before. Or your speed of performance may get slower.

But these declines due to aging don’t affect your overall functioning or ability to perform daily activities. Normal aging doesn’t affect recognition, intelligence or long-term memory. As you age beyond 55 years, you may occasionally forget names and words and misplace things. With mild cognitive impairment, you frequently forget conversations and information that you would typically remember, like appointments and other planned events. MCI interferes with your daily, routine activities.

Both dementia and MCI are descriptive terms that tell us about the degree of cognitive change and how it affects daily activities. The main difference between MCI and dementia is that the mental decline in MCI doesn’t interfere with daily living, whereas dementia does. In addition, people with MCI don’t experience personality changes that people with dementia can. Many underlying conditions can lead to MCI or dementia.

Dementia involves a decline in mental function from a previously higher level that’s severe enough to interfere with daily living.

A person with dementia has two or more of these specific difficulties, including a decline in:

Memory, Reasoning, Language, Coordination, Mood, Behavior.

The American Academy of Neurology estimates that mild cognitive impairment is present in the following populations:

You may notice the decline in your abilities, or a loved one might. But the changes aren’t severe enough to interfere with daily, routine activities of life.

Mild cognitive impairment can have several possible causes. Some are treatable and others aren’t. Some of the possible causes include:

Depression, chronic stress and anxiety, Thyroid, kidney or liver problems.Sleep apnea and other sleep disorders.

Conditions that affect blood flow in your brain, like tumors, blood clots, stroke or traumatic brain injury.Vitamin B12 deficiency or other nutrient deficiencies.

Side effects of certain prescription medications, like calcium channel blockers, anticholinergic drugs, benzodiazepines and others. Substance use disorder and alcohol use disorder.

MCI is often an early stage of certain neurodegenerative conditions. MCI can be an early stage of:

The strongest risk factors for mild cognitive impairment are the same as those for dementia:

Being 65 or older.

Having a biological family history of dementia.

Having conditions that increase your risk of cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, diabetes and obesity.

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National Institutes of Health (NIH) (.gov)
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