Health news of the week: Amnesia; causes, symptoms and much more you need to know
What is amnesia?
Amnesia refers to partial or complete memory loss. Becoming forgetful is common and normal as a person ages, however, when memory loss begins to interfere with activities of daily living, it needs to be assessed by a physician to be a sign of a deeper illness.
When is amnesia present?
Memory loss or amnesia is said to be present when a person loses the ability to remember events and information that they would regularly or normally remember.
Memory loss may deal with things heard or seen within a few minutes or seconds or something that has occurred in the past.
Amnesia may begin suddenly or may follow a longer course as it worsens over time, for example over a year or so. It is most often a temporary condition. (1-4)
Amnesia can be severely distressing for the patient as well as for his or her family and friends. If amnesia is found to interfere with activities of daily living it should be analysed.
Types of memory loss
Types of memory loss may include –
Losing immediate memory such as forgetting sights or sounds which are only stored for a few seconds.
Recent memory loss or short term memory loss – This includes loss of chunks of memories like telephone numbers or other numbers and codes that are stored temporarily.
Long term or remote memory loss – This involves losing more permanent memories from the past. This is usually sign of a deeper memory impairment rather than amnesia.
Range of memory loss
Memory loss may range from mild forgetfulness to more severe and permanent cases of dementia. Around 40% of people aged over 65 have some kind of memory problem, and only 15% will develop dementia each year.
Other emotional problems associated with amnesia
Amnesia is often accompanied by other emotional problems like anxiety, depression and stress.
Here memory loss is more due to poor concentration rather than actual memory impairment. In addition these patients also have difficulty sleeping that affects memory.
Amnesia after a head injury
Amnesia may also occur after a head injury or after a stroke. This type of amnesia is sudden and patient often forgets all that has happened before the incident (accident causing head injury or the stroke). This is called retrograde amnesia.
If the patient forgets everything that happened after the trauma, it is called anterograde amnesia.
Other causes of memory loss
Other causes of memory loss include:
disease of the thyroids,
as side effects of some medications such as sedatives or drugs used in Parkinson’s disease,
long term alcohol abuse
vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency (causing Korsakoff’s psychosis),
brain infections (Lyme’s disease, syphilis or HIV/AIDS)
a sudden stressful or traumatic event leading a person to block an unpleasant memory (psychogenic amnesia)
Amnesia may also occur in brain tumors.
Childhood amnesia refers to a person’s inability to recall events from early childhood.
Transient global amnesia
Transient global amnesia is related to psychological trauma or a medical procedure. It leads to repetitive questioning and sometimes confusion.
It lasts for 4-12 hours with a full recovery. This is termed fugue amnesia if there is loss of personal identity due to severe psychological trauma.
Usually, the memory comes back slowly or suddenly a few days later.
Prevention of amnesia
Amnesia patients need adequate support from friends and family. Memory loss may be prevented by adopting a healthier lifestyle and keeping brain’s memory function active with aging.
Treatment of amnesia
Amnesia or memory loss is associated with stress, anxiety and frustration and is often very distressing for the patient as well as for his or her family and friends.
Types of treatment for amnesia
Treatment of amnesia and memory loss include (1-4):
Cognitive therapy using speech or language therapist can be of help in patients with mild to moderate memory loss.
In many cases mild memory loss may persist. Treatment of underlying medical conditions leading to memory loss.
This includes treating low thyroid function, liver and kidney disease. Treatment of stroke, head injury, blood clots in brain and bleeding within the brain may be used to reduce memory loss due to these causes.
Treatment of concomitant psychiatric illness. This includes treating depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Treating alcoholism and preventing alcohol and illicit drug abuse.
Home care for amnesia
For management of amnesia home care is essential. Basic tenets of home care and prevention of complications include (5):
Prevention of falls – Often the elderly suffer from memory loss. This population is also prone to falls. A Fall Detector is part of an emergency call system that are worn on the belt and are sensitive to position. It can detect falls. Good lighting and avoidance of clutter helps prevent falls.
Doors should be left open and many houses have a provision to keep dangerous materials locked up and make sure the person cannot lock themselves in a room. Rooms can be labelled to prevent patients getting lost.
To prevent patients getting lost wanderer’s alarms and tags and transmitters may help. Patient is required to carry some form of identification with their name and address or contact number.
To prevent getting scalded by hot water it is necessary to install hot water shut-down and thermostats. There should be safety taps or tap covers to prevent risk of accidents.
Common concern in the kitchen is leaving the stove left on. A stove cut off may be used to cut off gas or power after a specified time. There should be a smoke alarm.
To remind patients to take medications there are medication organisers and pill reminders. The organizers have compartments for regular doses of medication. There are also electric pill reminders that have an alarm to remind individuals to take their tablets.
All important numbers, such as family and emergency, should be near the telephone. To keep the person oriented to time and place clocks with large numbers and calendars with large print may help reduce anxiety and frustration.
Prevention of amnesia
Prevention of amnesia:
Memory loss may be prevented by healthy living and reduction of risk factors for heart disease, diabetes etc. This includes lowering cholesterol and high blood pressure. This also reduces risk of stroke and Alzheimer’s disease.
Excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, use of illicit drugs etc. should be avoided.
There is no evidence that certain herbs like gingko biloba prevents memory loss.
Regular physical activity helps maintain blood flow to the brain and reduces risk factors of memory loss.
Healthy and balanced diet is important in reducing risk of memory loss. Green leafy vegetables reduce the risk of decline of memory with age.
Good social relationships and interactions can help reduce risk of memory loss.
Brain activity should be maintained. This can be regular reading, writing, learning a new skill, or instrument, doing crossword or puzzles etc. stimulates brain cells and lower risk of memory loss.
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