[Verse 1] When memory frays at the edges, not yet torn through, We call it mild impairment — subtypes number two: Amnestic, where the hippocampus starts to thin, Non-amnestic, where attention falters from within. Conversion rates to dementia hover near fifteen percent, But some revert to normal — a mercurial event. Subjective decline means the patient feels the slip Before our tests can measure any cognitive eclipse. [Chorus] Alzheimer's, vascular, Lewy, frontal lobe, Parkinson's and prion circling the globe, Biomarkers in the blood and amyloid in the scan, Stage it, name it, disclose it — that's the clinician's plan. CDR and FAST and Global Deterioration, Map the arc of loss with calibrated observation, Name the subtype, chart the stage, and hold the prognosis clear — Then sit beside the patient and abolish every fear. [Verse 2] Alzheimer's wears the amnestic face most often seen, With tau and amyloid accruing in the brain's ravine. New disease-modifying therapies — lecanemab leads the charge, Their implications stretch the ethics wide and large. Vascular dementia follows strokes in stepwise decline, Lewy body brings the triad: hallucinations, the Parkinsonian sign, Fluctuating cognition like a candle in a draft, And neuroleptic sensitivity — handle with the utmost craft. REM sleep behavior disorder is the early harbinger — The body acts its nightmares out, a somnolent messenger. [Chorus] Alzheimer's, vascular, Lewy, frontal lobe, Parkinson's and prion circling the globe, Biomarkers in the blood and amyloid in the scan, Stage it, name it, disclose it — that's the clinician's plan. CDR and FAST and Global Deterioration, Map the arc of loss with calibrated observation, Name the subtype, chart the stage, and hold the prognosis clear — Then sit beside the patient and abolish every fear. [Verse 3] Frontotemporal dementia, younger onset, disinhibited face, Behavioral variant first — personality displaced. Primary progressive aphasia steals the word before the mind, While alcohol, HIV, and TBI leave their trails behind. Prion disease burns catastrophically fast, Reversible causes — thyroid, B-twelve — never bypassed. Mixed dementia wears two pathologies at once, To miss a treatable etiology marks the clinical dunce. [Bridge] Now the diagnosis sits across the table, raw and named — The clinician carries honesty, the family half-ashamed. We call this numinous moment: the disclosure conversation, Where hope is not a falsehood but a reasoned estimation. Reactions cascade — grief, relief, a strange lethologica — That word for losing words right when you need them, the ironica. Post-diagnostic support begins before they leave the room, Involve the family, build the plan, and punctuate the gloom.
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