COgnitive-Pulmonary Disease

Over the past few decades, chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) has been considered a disease of the lungs, often caused by smoking. Nowadays, COPD is regarded as a systemic disease. Both physical effects and effects on brains, including impaired psychological and cognitive functioning, have been demonstrated. Patients with COPD may have cognitive impairment, either globally or in single cognitive domains, such as information processing, attention and concentration, memory, executive functioning, and self-control. Possible causes are hypoxemia, hypercapnia, exacerbations, and decreased physical activity. Cognitive impairment in these patients may be related to structural brain abnormalities, such as gray-matter pathologic changes and the loss of white matter integrity which can be induced by smoking. Cognitive impairment can have a negative impact on health and daily life and may be associated with widespread consequences for disease management programs. It is important to assess cognitive functioning in patients with COPD in order to optimize patient-oriented treatment and to reduce personal discomfort, hospital admissions, and mortality. This paper will summarize the current knowledge about cognitive impairment as extrapulmonary feature of COPD. Hereby, the impact of smoking on cognitive functioning and the impact of cognitive impairment on smoking behaviour will be examined.