I feel I may have a neurodegenerative disease. How to determine it?

Question

Hello doctor,

I feel as if I may have a neurodegenerative disease. My symptoms are as follows:

More forgetful than normal.
The battle to find the right words.
I get very bad pains and pressure in my brain.
When driving, I battle with judging my following distance.

Please, could you provide any tests that I could take? If it is a neurodegenerative disease, what is the progression rate, that is, the timeline between each stage?

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

First, only based on these symptoms, it is difficult to say with certainty. I would like to ask if you have any medical problems as of now, and taking any medicine, or using any substance of abuse. These symptoms could be due to:

Neurodegenerative disease.
Depression.
Secondary to medical conditions such as hypothyroidism, brain tumor or infection.
Syphilis.
Substance abuse.

So, to reach a diagnosis, you need to undergo a few investigations including full blood count, blood sugar, thyroid function test, B12 and folate level, CT or MRI brain, liver, and renal function test. There are psychological tests such as MMSE (mini-mental state examination), Hamilton depression rating scale (to find the level of depression), and ADAS - Cog to find the level of cognition. I recommend that you consult a psychiatrist in person for a detailed evaluation. The timeline for neurodegenerative diseases is different for each disease and also varies considerably in different people Alzheimer's disease progresses in five years to a decade while prion disease progression is very rapid. Similarly, neurodegenerative diseases secondary to medical conditions are reversible or at least stagnant once appropriate treatment is taken.

Thank you.

Answer 2

Hello,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

Considering your age, and all test reports are within the normal range, that means you are probably not suffering from a neurodegenerative disease and most probably you are suffering from a stress-induced problem. However, you asked for further investigations. So, I recommend that you take an online test. You need to download software with proper instructions and can test with it, which assesses all forms of cognition. It takes around four to five hours. You take that test and after completing it, it gives you a score and indicates your level of cognition. In case you are not able to understand the test results, then send me the PDF file of the test result and I will explain it to you.

Thank you.