In Doctor who created cognitive test Trump brags about acing says questions were “supposed to be easy” it is noted that Nasreddine and his “peers are growing increasingly concerned that the test might not be as accurate anymore, because too many elements have been shared online. This allows people to potentially practice the questions to perform better on the exam.” This makes me wonder about the question that even Trump’s bragging that he aced the tested doesn’t mean he didn’t cheat. Would Trump cheat? Oh ye of little faith…

Chauncey DeVega has been covering mental health and other health care profiessionals in Salon, especially clinical psychologist Dr. John D. Gartner and his Change.org petition (Our Diagnostic Impression of Trump is Probable Dementia: For Licensed Professionals Only signed so far by over 1700.

The introduction to the petition is as follows:

We, the undersigned licensed medical and mental health professionals (INCLUDE YOUR ADVANCED DEGREE IN YOUR LAST NAME WITH NO PUNCTUATION) concur: From our years of training and experience, we are convinced that, while a definitive diagnosis would require further testing, Donald Trump is showing unmistakable signs strongly suggesting dementia, based on his public behavior and informant reports that show progressive deterioration in memory, thinking, ability to use language, behavior, and both gross and fine motor skills. 

After describing specific indicartions of dementia it concludes:

As he continues to deteriorate he will become even more erratic, impulsive, paranoid, and aggressive than he already is. A demented malignant narcissist as president of the United States would have unimaginably catastrophic consequences.

Not only is Trump unfit, but he cognitively incapable of carrying out the duties of president. Under normal circumstances, relatives of such a patient would be seeking consultation with experts, and considering long term care, as he continues to deteriorate.

We feel an ethical obligation to warn the public, and urge the media to cover this national emergency.

Today DeVega has an interview with a forensic psyhiatrist here: Forensic psychiatrist on physical signs of Trump’s mental decline: “Changes in movement and gait”.

So where are actual experts in dementia going public about their assessment that Trump has dementia? The mental health and other health professionals are able to engage in research into dementia but they aren’t actual experts in the filed.

In order to find at least a sample of such experts I went over all the entries from people who signed Gartner’s Change petition and gave their reason and found these who identified that they had specific expertise in dementia:

Jonathan Lauffer FRN: I’m a Forensic Registered Nurse and before that worked with geriatric patients in an acute care mental health setting. I’ve spent numerous hours caring for patients with dementia in all stages as well as mental health comorbidities that often make people suffering from them reckless. His situation is indeed uniquely dangerous and will affect all of us if he’s aloud to resume office. It’s my duty to join in sounding the alarm on this issue.

John Courtney: I am a board-certified neuropsychologist with 36 years of practice experience including forensic assessment.

Christina Fredley: I have worked with Dementia patients for 20+ years and if anyone has Dementia it’s Joe Biden . It’s Perfectly Evident. You all should loose your license for lie to the American people.

Jill Gilson: I’m a retired Nurse whose taken care of a fair share of dementia patients. His symptoms are classic dementia.

Dr. Jo Evans-Coleman: As a practitioner in neuro- behavioral psychology providing services to the adjudicated, my thoughts on Donald Trump’s eradict, combative and very caustic behaviors are clearly indicative of an individual with a mental psychosis. Additionally, he appears to harbor strong dementia characteristics with his gross and fine motor disturbances, cognitive and language decline such as when he perseverates on thoughts that he contends, “I did nothing wrong” and the pronunciation of words and phrases that resemble elements of an aphasic!Lastly, Donald Trump should NEVER be afforded the opportunity to serve in the presidency due to my aforementioned reasons.

Ankur Butala: I am a Neuropsychiatrist and Movement Disorders Neurologist at an academic medical center. Raised in NYC, I have been long acquainted with Trump’s bloviating. He is and will always be a con man. While Trump’s history of narcissistic, self aggrandizing personality impacts interpretation of a neurodegenerative disorder, there is more than enough reason to suspect Dementia including : worsening thought process, loser connections between thoughts, tangentiality, paraphasias, irritability, paranoia, persecutory ideation, impulsivity and so on; which are clearly different than videos of him from 10 years ago. Without personally examining him, I cannot clarify further, but he appears to at least have a cautious gait. The most plausible disorder would be a mixture of frontal lobe dysfunction (sort of like frontotemporal Dementia or CTE) from a vascular Dementia. Continuing to harp on a MOCA assessment from years ago is irrelevant and I doubt he would pass that (which is only a screening test) or more accurate assessments now. The *best* interpretation of his recent actions is that he’s a sleep deprived, stressed, narcissistic asshole con man.

Kay Hyl:e I have worked in the field of geriatric medicine and as a caregiver for clients suffering from dementia. I see so many similarities that I feel it is my duty to sign .

Kate Culliton: As an RN of 41 years, 31 as a Neurosurgical Clinician, I am incredibly troubled that a person exhibiting such clear symptoms of neurologic dysfunction/disease could be considered in any way to be capable of filling the position of the United States Presidency.

Scroll down to those who posted thier reasons for signing.

There have to be more experts out there. I lament that they don’t so far feel the same duty to warn that those in the mental health field do.

I suggest that everyone read about what later stage dementia looks like and consider that Trump is somewhere on the progression of this disease. What we can’t know is how quickly he will move to the moderate dementia stage. Some people in this stage need to reside in memory care facilities. He could be in this stage the day he is sworn in as president if he wins the election. Read over what his stage looks like and consider that we could have a president who is totally incapable of governing and who is also a malignant narcissist who then becomes clincally paranoid, and then imagine because of the progression of the dementia, it gets worse.

He’d have surrounded himself with absolute loyalists so to only way to save the country would be to have the Vice President and Cabinet invoke Article 3 of the 25th Ammendment, and then for 2/3rd of both the Senate and House to remove him from offrice installing the Vice President as permanent acting president.

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