Cognitive dysfunction more common ‘than we want to admit’ in rheumatic disease

SAN DIEGO — Limited assessment tools make it difficult to determine the prevalence and severity of cognitive disorders in patients with rheumatic and autoimmune diseases, according to a speaker at the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology West.
“These are the complaints we hear from patients all the time , regardless of their age, their disease,” Noa Schwartz, MD, MS, co-director of the Lupus Clinic at the Montefiore Medical Center, in New York, told attendees. “Things like, ‘I can’t concentrate, I don’t remember why I walked into a room, I feel like I’m slow.’”

SAN DIEGO — Limited assessment tools make it difficult to determine the prevalence and severity of cognitive disorders in patients with rheumatic and autoimmune diseases, according to a speaker at the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology West.
“These are the complaints we hear from patients all the time , regardless of their age, their disease,” Noa Schwartz, MD, MS, co-director of the Lupus Clinic at the Montefiore Medical Center, in New York, told attendees. “Things like, ‘I can’t concentrate, I don’t remember why I walked into a room, I feel like I’m slow.’”