Donald J. Trump has regularly accused his political opponent, President Joe Biden, of being cognitively impaired to the point of being unfit for the office of the White House. But that might be pure projection, if you take into account what one psychologist said on Saturday.Trump over the weekend sp...
In practice, there’s not a huge emphasis on diagnosis.
As in, if grandma is buying a 12 pack of toilet paper every week when she does her shopping, it doesn’t really matter whether you classify it as dementia or forgetfulness, you just need to figure out the best way to minimise the harm and give her the best quality of life moving forward.
Most mental health diagnoses are the same. Even if you get a clinical diagnosis of “bi-polar” the treatment options are similar to most other mental health problems and you just work through them until you find a good one.
Similarly courts don’t care about diagnosis. They might get a psychiatrist to assess whether someone is fit to stand trial, but that’s a measurement of cognitive function rather than diagnosing the reason for cognitive impairment.