Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Post-Stroke Cognitive Deficits

Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and focal post-stroke cognitive deficits are an unfortunately common occurrence. Despite this, our understanding of risk factors for development of VCI and treatment thereof is embarrassingly limited. While no FDA approved treatments exist for VCI, recent and ongoing research sheds some light on the problem, showing some efficacy of cholinesterase inhibitors and antidepressants, treatment of vascular risk factors, and other investigational drugs. Treatments for focal cognitive impairments such as aphasia and neglect are also limited, primarily by the size of studies that have been done. With the more widespread acceptance of the AHA-ASA diagnostic criteria for VCI and its subtypes, perhaps we will start to see more in the way of compelling treatment trials.