Memory loss requires careful diagnosis, scientists say

A federal investigator says President Biden has a "poor memory" and "impaired faculties." But such a diagnosis would require a thorough medical evaluation, experts said.

A lengthy Justice Department report on President Biden's handling of classified documents contained astonishing evaluations of his property. -being and mental health.

Mr. Biden, 81, was an “elderly man with a poor memory” and “diminished faculties” who “did not remember his time as vice president,” special counsel Robert K. Hur said. /p>

In conversations recorded in 2017, Mr. Biden was “often painfully slow” and “had difficulty remembering events and sometimes struggled to read and relay the notes in his own notebook. Mr. Biden was so weakened that a jury was unlikely to convict him, Mr. Hur said.

Republicans were quick to pounce, with some calling the president unfit for office and demanding his removal.

But while the report disparaged Mr. Biden's mental health, medical experts noted Friday that his judgments were not based on science and that his methods bore no resemblance to those of Mr. Biden. those that doctors use to assess possible cognitive impairment.

In its simplest form, the problem is one that doctors and family members face for decades: How do you know when an episode of confusion or memory lapse is part of a serious decline?

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