lest we overreach as in the Terry Schivo case

Who’s “we”, R.H. Green?

Last time I checked, progressives weren’t joining Frist on that.

I don’t hang with Frist or the Frist family’s Medical Corporation of America, or the Fundies or the Rethugs who pull the Fundies’ puppet strings.

They’re the folks who pulled the Schiavo propaganda stunt.

Who’s “we”, R.H. Green?

Umm…while waiting for more concern trolling, here are few references about MD’s assessing cognitive impairment.

Cognitive and functional impairment
American Family Physician, Feb 15, 1995

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A Clinical Approach To Mild Cognitive Impairment

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The Goteborg MCI study: mild cognitive impairment is a heterogeneous condition

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been considered a transitional state between normal aging and dementia, characterised by memory impairment but normal general cognitive functioning. Recently other cognitive deficits have been reported. This has led to a modification of MCI criteria.

Objective: To examine which neuropsychological tests most clearly distinguish MCI subjects from normal controls.

Methods: 112 consecutive MCI subjects and 35 controls were included in the study. The diagnosis of MCI was based on an objective history of cognitive decline and a neuropsychiatric examination, comprising instruments STEP, I-Flex, MMSE, and CDR. Participants were examined with 21 neuropsychological tests in the cognitive domains speed/attention, memory and learning, visuospatial function, language, and executive function.

Results: Controls were significantly older. No differences were found in education or general intellectual capacity. Controls performed significantly better than MCI on tests within all five cognitive domains. The clearest differences were seen on language tests, followed by executive function, and learning and memory. Only two subjects (1.8%) were purely amnestic; 17% showed no impairment compared with controls, with a cut off of 1.5 SD below age mean. These subjects were better educated and performed significantly better on measures of general cognitive capacity.

Conclusions: The results illustrate the heterogeneity of MCI, with a significant degree of impairment in all five cognitive domains. When examined with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, very few subjects had an isolated memory impairment.

Oh, what the hell do a lot of clinicians and medical researchers know? Those assholes assess cognitive behavioral therapy the same way all the shrinks I was trained with — and all the shrinks I practiced with in a major medical center assessed cognitive impairment.

Jeebus, I just don’t know how a UC teaching hospital’s psychiatric consultation-liasion service got along and functioned and diagnosed and referred patients without knowing how Wittgenstien and “Psychological theory” told us what we were doing was invalid.

Oh, wait – now I remember.

Quite well.

Of course, “cognitive impairment” wasn’t such a loaded term then: we didn’t have a major party nominee with such obvious symptoms running for President.

Lordy, lordy, lordy.

All these uppity MD’s assessing — and publishing assessments of — cognitive impairment.

All these clinicians don’t seem to heed “Psychological theory”. What’s the post-modern theoretical wing of academy coming to if the doers aren’t listening to them?

Oh – I forgot. I don’t give a flying jump.

Some of us do — others theorize.

Here in SF, we’ve got Good Vibrations. Far more pleasurable wanking than that provided by untestable theories.

Okay, lots of dead people, lots of alive ones too; and some that aren’t quite dead yet. I am not quite sure what the argument is over at this point; there has been agreement that hard conclusions should not be drawn but questions are warranted. Am I missing something?

Are you a psychiatrist; is that your medical specialty? A quick Google look indicated that you are a Cognitive Behavior Therapist; is this true? The answers may provide the basis for a meaningful discussion.

You wrote: “Wittgenstein is dead”. This is true, and so is Socrates, and for that matter Pasteur, but we can still benefit from an understanding of their works.

I can’t recall which Nobel Laureate (in biology, if I recall), held forth that anyone who truly undertood their own field could explain their work to a three-year old.

Perhaps when you dismount, your could help us find the reference.

John McCain recently been has been unable to recall:

– what make of automobile he drives

– how many homes he posseses

Those are two basic pieces of “overlearned” information. McCain’s difficulty in retreiving even this data matters to me as a voter.

Describing McCain’s evident cognitive impairment as “cognitive impairment” describes brain function. Brain function is relevant for those who use their brain to carry out there occupational duties…like executives…or deciderers…or the Chief executive.

Some people have signs of liver disease. FDR had signs of polio. Muhammed Ali has signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.

Factual observations of an individual human being’s biology aren’t ad hominen attacks.

The attempt to falsely classify such factual observations as ad hominem atacks would serve to preclude basic and easily observable manifestations of John McCain’s cognitive impairment from discussion.

Last time I checked, brain dysfunction (and signs of brain disease) was evident in Reagan and are evident in Bush.

I can see how the McCain campaign wouldn’t want the question raised. As a citizen of America, I don’t want information and questions fitered through Republican preferences.

I want to know which Prez candidates display signs or symptoms of cogntive impairment. Wittgenstein is dead, and psychological theories are all too often merely debates over hypotheses which can never be falsified, and hence never tested.

Whatever devotees of philosohy may prefer, I’m glad to see public discussion of signs and symptoms of cognitive impairment in a major party’s nominee for President.

I’m sure there’s a philosophical theory I’m not respecting in the views I expressed. The theory can go wank — I’ll keep writing. I hope others who choose to write about John McCain’s cognitive impairment will, too.

Our future is too important to sacrifice on the altar of Wittgenstein or the inside baseball fields of “Psychological theory”.