[COGNITIVE DOMAINS IN THE DSM-5 ERA AND THEIR ASSESSMENT BY PHYSICIANS IN COGNITIVELY IMPAIRED ELDERLIES]

The chapter on Neurocognitive Disorders in DSM-5 presents significant changes in nomenclature, classification and content. It suggests a diagnostic approach based on impairment in six cognitive domains (complex attention, executive function, learning and memory, language, perceptual-motor and social cognition) and twenty-three subdomains for diagnosis, and includes definitions, examples of assessments and establishes percentages and standard deviations for severity determination. DSM-5 explicitly prefers the use of formal, standardized neuropsychological tests adjusted for age, sex, education, language and culture, over the brief screening cognitive tests. However, no specific tests are named. The article presents five essential neuropsychological batteries, whose tests tap on DSM-5 cognitive domains, subdomains and definitions, although, not all of them. These batteries attempt to reduce the length and complexity of former batteries while maintaining efficiency of use in cognitively impaired elderlies and providing accessibility to various clinicians in diverse clinical settings. We compared the five batteries and re-classified their tests according to DSM-5 requirements. Several tests within the batteries were selected because they are brief, easy to administer, meet DSM-5 requirements, and once learned are readily usable by physicians in any medical setting. The discussion deals with the status of use of cognitive tests, especially neuropsychological tests, in Israel.