Rinn W E
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114.
J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 1988 Jul-Sep;1(3):144-58. doi: 10.1177/089198878800100304.
A considerable degree of mental decline is evident in most persons of advanced age. This article argues that this is due to a life-span deterioration, beginning in early adulthood, and that it is not an artifact of motor or mental slowness or educational disadvantage in the elderly; nor is it attributable to a cohort effect. The decline is seen not as natural but as a subclinical dementia that is produced by small pathological changes in the brain due to various medical/pathological conditions, some of which are treatable.
在大多数高龄者中，明显存在相当程度的智力衰退。本文认为，这是由于从成年早期就开始的寿命性衰退，并非老年人运动或思维迟缓、教育程度低的假象，也不是队列效应所致。这种衰退并非自然现象，而是一种亚临床痴呆，由各种医学/病理状况导致的大脑微小病理变化引起，其中一些状况是可以治疗的。
