%0 Journal Article
%T Toward a Sequential Strategy for Diagnosing Neurocognitive Disorders: A Consensus from the "Act On Dementia" European Joint Action.
%A Krolak-Salmon P
%A Maillet A
%A Vanacore N
%A Selbaek G
%A Rejdak K
%A Traykov L
%A Politis A
%A Georges J
%A Borson S
%A Leperre-Desplanques A
%J J Alzheimers Dis
%V 72
%N 2
%D 2019
%M 31594224
%F 4.16
%R 10.3233/JAD-190461
%X Neurocognitive disorders causing progressive cognitive, functional, and behavioral impairment remain underdiagnosed. The needs for a timely diagnosis are now widely acknowledged since person-centered care helps to preserve life quality and prevent crises. One powerful barrier to detection in primary care is the lack of an easy-to-follow stepwise approach, grounded in evidence and consistent with high-quality specialty practice. To help fill this gap, the current European Joint Action proposes a graduated diagnosis strategy tailored to the patients' needs and wills, clarifying appropriate components for primary and specialty care. This strategy considers a first evaluation in primary care that may detect a neurocognitive disorder, that would lead to a second evaluation step allowing etiological diagnosis hypotheses performed mostly by the specialist. A third evaluation stage considering some biological, electrophysiological, or neuroimaging complementary techniques would be proposed to atypical cases or patients willing to consider access to research.