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Query: UMLS:C0598853 (forgetting)
 3,232 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This study was set up to examine factors affecting adherence to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) by substance abusing women and to conduct a pilot study of a reminder device intervention. Three focus groups totaling 24 HIV-positive women developed priority lists of issues affecting adherence. Another group of 24 HIV-positive women received a timer-reminder with structured interviews on adherence at baseline and two monthly follow up intervals. Focus groups described key barriers to HAART adherence as substance abuse, forgetting, feeling ill, others' negative attitudes, obtaining refills and confidentiality. Primary disadvantages to HAART were side effects, pill-taking schedule and burden of taking medications. Facilitators included reminders (e.g. pill boxes) and spirituality. After receiving the reminder, missing a dose was less common (p < 0.05) due to sleeping through dose, being busy and feeling too good while a favourable trend (p = 0.07) was seen for change in daily routine and having too many pills to take. Although well accepted, the reminder did not affect the proportion missing a dose in the past two weeks: baseline (33%), first follow-up (30%) and second follow-up (30%). Forgetting to take HAART was only one of many cited barriers to adherence in these HIV-positive women; well-received reminder devices did not affect adherence. To improve substance-abusing women's adherence, multidimensional interventions are warranted.
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PMID:Qualitative and quantitative assessments of HAART adherence of substance-abusing women. 1285 45

The California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) was administered to examine learning and memory performance in aging combat veterans with (n = 30) and without PTSD (n = 20), and veterans unexposed to combat (n = 15). Combat veterans with PTSD (PTSD+) showed many impairments compared to non-exposed veterans, but only long-delay free recall consistently discriminated the PTSD+ group from combat-exposed subjects without PTSD (PTSD-), when data were corrected for subscale scores on the WAIS (Vocabulary, Block Design). Alterations in total learning were associated with PTSD when controlling for substance abuse and depression. Two contrast measures, proactive interference and recognition hits, distinguished combat from noncombat veterans, and may be related to trauma exposure. Impairments in total learning are similar to what has been observed in Holocaust survivors. However, increased severity of rapid forgetting may be a specific alteration in older combat veterans, likely reflecting aspects of both combat exposure and aging.
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PMID:Learning and memory in aging combat veterans with PTSD. 1596 94

Substance misuse is usually associated with poorer psychiatric medication adherence among psychiatric patients. Identifying predictors of medication adherence among patients with dual psychiatric and substance misuse problems is important because poor adherence is associated with relapse and re-hospitalization. The subjects were patients newly admitted to a psychiatric outpatient program who were prescribed psychiatric medication from different providers during the six months prior to admission; all also had substance misuse histories (N=131). Confidential research interviews were conducted that included a modified Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS) and drug toxicologies. Age (mean): 39 y; male 61%; Black 41%; Hispanic 38%; White 21%; completed high school/GED 41%; DSM-IV diagnoses: major depression 26%, schizoaffective 21%, bipolar 16%, schizophrenia 13%, other 24%; positive drug toxiology 55%. Potentially malleable factors correlated with lower adherence were: lower friends' support for drug/alcohol abstinence, more recovery-promoting behaviors, lower satisfaction with medication, more medication side effects, lower self-efficacy for drug avoidance, and lower social support for recovery. In multivariate regression analysis, only the last three factors remained as significant predictors of adherence. Low adherence is not attributable to simply forgetting to take medication. Strengthening adherence should also include better education about side effects and the importance of adherence to sustain the benefits of medication. Psychiatrists and other medical providers should also be encouraged to address patients' adherence strategies, since the time devoted to addressing that during treatment may prevent serious adverse events such as relapse to substance abuse, treatment drop-out and re-hospitalization.
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PMID:Factors associated with medication adherence among psychiatric outpatients at substance abuse risk. 2326 42

Missed appointments are a problem in all types of outpatient clinics including those providing mental healthcare. A review of literature was conducted to explore the problem of missed appointments in mental health and identify methods that have been used to improve attendance. Study results demonstrate that patients miss appointments for many reasons. Common reasons for missed appointments in the articles reviewed were the interval between scheduling and appointment day, forgetting, being discharged against medical advice, and problems with substance abuse. Effective in reducing no-shows was contact via phone, mail, or text messaging. No articles were found related to the use of positive reinforcement in reducing no-shows, which is an area to consider for further research. Clinicians may identify techniques from this review applicable to their particular clinical setting to improve clinic attendance.
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PMID:The Problem of Missed Mental Healthcare Appointments. 2799 14

Memory and forgetfulness have been viewed since antiquity from perspectives of physical, emotional, and spiritual states of well-being, and conceptualized philosophically. Numerous discussions of memory loss, or case reports, existed, but a fundamental advance in conceptualization of memory loss as a pathological clinical phenomenon originated when Sauvages classified "amnesia" as a medical disorder, in 1763. Originally, amnesia was recognized as a weakening or dissolution of memory, according to a taxonomy that ascribed known causes to the disorder. Etiologic factors included neurological disorders of stroke, hemorrhage, and head injury, metabolic dysregulation, alcohol and substance abuse, toxicity, anoxia, and other acute or chronic (sometimes progressive) brain disorders. Clinical descriptions of amnesia appeared internationally in medical dictionaries and scientific encyclopedias in the early 19th century. The possibility that amnesia could be either idiopathic, or symptomatic of another illness, was proposed based on the wide range of recognized etiologies and associations. Debate ensued regarding the status of amnesia as an illness or a symptom, but regardless, amnesia was soon recognized as an independent disorder of memory, distinguishable from disorders of global intellect, or of consciousness, or of language. Distinctions of amnesia considered its temporal gradient, duration and natural course, nature of onset, severity or depth of memory loss, course, and prognosis. Concepts of retrograde (forgetting knowledge preceding onset) and anterograde (difficulty learning, recalling new information) further specified the nature of amnestic memory difficulty. Alcoholic amnesia in Korsakoff's syndrome generated much attention. Amnesia as a clinical feature was critical to the development of notions of dissociation of conscious from subconscious recall in hysteria, and differentiation of neurogenically-based from psychogenically-based amnesia became central to understanding post-traumatic states. Amnesia studied as a disorder of memory remains an avenue to enrich clinical understanding of a condition that continues to be powerfully challenging to this day.
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PMID:Early History of Amnesia. 3122 Aug 49