The state of the cognitions of clean-up workers of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident

Abstract

Purpose: Clinical and neuropsychiatric assessment of the state of the cognitive functions of clean up workers of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.Comparative examination of the cognitive functions of a group of clean up workers of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, suffering from non-psychotic psychoorganic syndrome and patients with of cerebrovascular brain damage, using clinical, clinical-metric and neuropsychological methods. Psychopathological and neuropsychological assessment of their condition, correlation of neuropsychological and clinical-psychopathological manifestations of the identified disorders.The study revealed a wide range of cognitive impairments; at the remote stages, they dem onstrate an increase in cognitive impairment with the inclusion in the neuropsychological profile of predementia signs of the «Alzheimer’s» type. The predominance of violations of the regulatory mechanisms of cognitive functions over operational, predominantly neurodynamic, was noted. An increase in psycho-organic symptoms occurring against the background of somatic disorders can provoke previously unmanifested signs of neurodegenerative processes. Conative (motivational) disorders are also characteristic of the DS subgroup and are associated with altered affective mechanisms that are available for recovery as affective disorders are reduced. The structure of the clinical state of patients with LPA gravitates towards the psycho-pathological and neuropsychological profile of the CDS subgroup and is determined by the inclusion of deep structural mechanisms of cognitive impairment. The loss or decline in cognitive capabilities is acutely and painfully experienced in the LPA group; perhaps, there is not a true loss of skills, but some overvalued processing of the existing decline in professional level and household self-service abilities.