| Vol 6 n° 4 - Mild Cognitive Impairment |
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ear Colleagues,
Historically, the
concept of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was based on a
sketchy understanding of
deficit and dementia states. Our knowledge on this question
has greatly expanded thanks
to a spate of new data. Populations at risk for these disor-
ders can now
be detected early using new biological or
psychometric techniques.
However, the symptoms
of MCI can be absent or scarce, or remain not fully expressed
for protracted periods. MCI
may be understood either as an autonomous disorder, with
its own course, or
as a stage on the road toward a
degenerative disease, such as
Alzheimer’s disease, which
will become manifest at a later date.
Understanding the mechanisms
and course of MCI is essential for the manage-
ment of this condition. Further, it
is crucial to define criteria to guide us in key choices,
such as type of treatment, time
of treatment initiation, the potential utility of preventive
treatment, and the
organization of follow-up.
The need to answer these
various questions has triggered a notable effort in both
basic and applied research. Work
carried out in both an academic research setting and
in collaboration with
the pharmaceutical industry has attempted to devise innovative
treatment approaches to
cognitive deficit states.
For a long time, the
lack of effective therapeutic methods for these disorders made
their study purely gratuitous. Fortunately, this
is no longer the case, and recent advances
in the understanding of
treatment and pathogenesis mean that it is now opportune to
review the current state
of knowledge on MCI.Thus, it appeared important to devote an
issue of
Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience to this theme.
We are deeply grateful
to Dr Barry Lebowitz for agreeing to coordinate this issue
and for bringing together
several outstanding experts in this field.
Yours sincerely,
Jean-Paul Macher, MD
Marc-Antoine Crocq, MD
