Cognitive and behaviour change in MND

Used across the whole answer

✓Supports this

“Changes to thinking, emotions or behaviour do not happen to everyone with MND, and where they do happen they are usually mild.”

Opens by saying many people with MND have no cognitive or behaviour change at all, and adds that among those who do, most changes are relatively mild.

Many people with MND will not experience cognitive and behaviour change.

What you should know

✓Supports this

“A change in thinking or mood is not necessarily caused by MND, because other things can produce the same changes.”

States the same either-or, and lists fatigue, pain, medication side effects, anxiety or depression, and difficulty managing strong emotions as the other factors that can be behind a change.

Cognitive and behaviour change may be due to MND or a result of other factors.

What you should know

✓Supports this

“Changes in thinking can make weighing a decision harder and can affect a person's capacity to make it.”

Makes exactly this link, and gives it as the reason planning ahead matters: changes to thinking and behaviour can affect whether someone can decide about their own care and treatment.

Changes to thinking and behaviour can affect a person's ability to make decisions about their care and treatment.

What you should know

✓Supports this

“It is reasonable to ask about cognitive or behavioural assessment early, without waiting for changes to become obvious.”

Says the benefit of picking these changes up early holds even when the changes still look mild, which is the reason for not waiting until they are obvious.

Early diagnosis and support for cognitive and behaviour change can improve quality of life, even if changes seem mild.

What you should know

Supports a claim in this answer

Up to around half of people with MND notice some change in thinking or behaviour, and these are usually mild

✓Supports this

“Emotional lability is a recognised symptom in MND and there are ways to manage it.”

Also names it, and gives practical steps for managing it: recognising it as a symptom, slow breathing, distraction, telling family and the care team, and medication.

Knowing this is a symptom of MND makes it easier to manage.

What is emotional lability?

✓Supports this

“A smaller group of people with MND experience frontotemporal change or frontotemporal dementia, which affects behaviour, language and judgement more markedly.”

Puts a number on the smaller group: up to 15% of people with MND, who may be given a diagnosis of motor neurone disease with frontotemporal dementia.

Up to 15% of people will show more significant changes and be diagnosed with 'motor neurone disease with frontotemporal dementia' or MND/FTD.

What you should know

!Qualifies this

“Up to around half of people with MND experience some change in thinking or behaviour, and for most of them the change is mild.”

Agrees that most changes are relatively mild, but puts the proportion a little higher than this answer does, at over half rather than up to half. Its own summary page splits this into around 35% with mild changes and up to 15% with frontotemporal dementia.

Research has found that over 50% of people with MND can experience changes in thinking and behaviour.

Introduction

Further reading

Plain-language factsheet on what cognitive and behaviour change can look like