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Query: UMLS:C0751295 (memory loss)
 3,619 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The case of a patient with symptoms suggestive of a dissociative disorder is presented. The consultant reviews the diagnosis of multiple personality disorder (MPD) as defined in DSM-III-R and DSM-IV in relation to the patient's dissociative states, hallucinations, memory loss, and other symptoms. He then highlights the distinctions among MPD, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, major depression, and complex partial seizures. After presenting the conceptualization of MPD as a chronic posttraumatic stress disorder, he concludes with a review of treatment approaches that address the traumatic history and that involve hypnosis to gain access to and control dissociative states.
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PMID:A case of probable dissociative disorder. 135 64

Sleep deficits are commonly found in geriatric depressed patients, particularly shortened rapid eye movements (REM) latency, disturbed sleep continuity, and decreased slow wave sleep (SWS). Here we report the sleep patterns of community volunteers responding to ads about memory loss and depression. The two groups, 24 geriatric-onset major depressive disorder (MDD) subjects with a minimal history of seeking treatment for depression and 24 gender- and age-matched control subjects, significantly differed from each other on only one measure of sleep--sleep latency; the MDD group showed a modest but significant shortening of latency to fall asleep. All other sleep/wake measures, including REM latency, temporal distribution of REM sleep across the night, SWS, and measures of nighttime wakefulness did not differ between groups. This lack of significant sleep disturbance suggests that the sleep deficits reported in many studies of major depression may be related to factors underlying treatment-seeking behaviors, physical health status, severity of the depression, or heterogeneity within the MDD population with some types seeking treatment and others not seeking it, rather than depressive state per se. The data indicate that community-dwelling healthy elderly individuals who have a diagnosed major depression but who have not actively sought health care do not necessarily manifest the sleep disturbances thought to be characteristic of major depressive illness.
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PMID:Sleep is undisturbed in elderly, depressed individuals who have not sought health care. 217 92

The study of psychiatric manifestations in dementia has long been overshadowed by the more classical manifestations of the disease, such as memory loss and other cognitive deficits. In recent years, however, psychiatric symptoms as part of the demential process have attracted interest and research has become more specific. Clinicians are faced with diagnostic, treatment and management difficulties related to affective or psychotic symptoms, which account for much distress and morbidity. Several studies indicate that the prevalence of psychiatric manifestations in clinical populations of patients suffering from dementia is high: 15% to 30% for hallucinations, 15% to 30% for delusions, ten percent to 20% for major depression and 40% to 50% for depressed mood. These figures tend to confirm the hypothesis that psychiatric features in dementia are neither infrequent nor atypical. Thus, researchers have sought to link psychotic or depressive symptomatology with several clinical characteristics of dementia, namely stage, severity, prognosis or cognitive dysfunction. Some recent studies involving extensive neuropsychological evaluations indicate that subgroups of patients can be defined according to psychiatric criteria, as well as cognitive or neurological criteria. Unfortunately, results are inconsistent. Some of the contradictions in the literature are related to poorly defined terms and symptoms, a lack of reliable operational criteria, absence of validation of instruments and scales and heterogeneity of the populations studied. Ambiguous syndromes, such as pseudodementia, while illustrative of certain clinical situations, have not been helpful in categorizing demented patients. The author suggests that research focused on specific and clearly defined psychiatric symptoms in dementia will better serve our comprehension of mixed syndromes.
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PMID:[Psychiatric manifestations in dementia: phenomenologic perspectives]. 831 7

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a safe, effective, valuable treatment for serious affective disorders (eg, major depression). Sometimes indicated for other, occasionally nonpsychiatric, medical conditions, ECT is a moderately complex procedure for which training is provided routinely during psychiatric residency. Although temporary confusion and amnesia are expected immediately after treatment, no reliable data suggest that permanent memory loss or cognitive deficit is caused by modern ECT. Indeed, because severe depression itself often causes both memory and cognitive deficits, ECT's remarkable therapeutic effectiveness is associated with long-term improvement in cognition, learning ability, and memory for many patients. Controversy over safety and effect on memory is fueled largely by public misinformation.
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PMID:Electroconvulsive therapy. 834 62

This paper discusses a methodological difficulty that arose when uncovering the conscious experience of being nurtured as an in-patient with depression on a psychiatric ward. It considers the problem of arriving at a phenomenological description of memory loss in a patient who had undergone electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The paper begins by describing the prevalence of depression and its significance for nurses working in in-patient settings. Examples of empirical research into memory loss in depression are used to show what researchers must set aside if they are to arrive at a phenomenological description of memory loss. The choice of a phenomenological approach to the wider study from which the methodological problem discussed here arose is then justified. The phenomena of memory is introduced to show the methodological significance of attempting to arrive at a phenomenological description of the statement made by one of the participants, a woman being treated as an in-patient for major depression. A possible description of the phenomena of memory loss based on the existential phenomenology of Sartre is offered to call into question the ability of researchers to bracket their assumptions. The significance for nurses of the wider study from which our example is taken is then described. Finally it is argued that despite the methodological difficulty described, a phenomenological perspective based on the philosophy of Husserl can point nurses in the direction of meeting the human needs of their patients.
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PMID:The problem of arriving at a phenomenological description of memory loss. 923 Dec 85

Major depression is a mood disorder characterized by a sense of inadequacy, despondency, decreased activity, pessimism, anhedonia and sadness where these symptoms severely disrupt and adversely affect the person's life, sometimes to such an extent that suicide is attempted or results. Antidepressant drugs are not always effective and some have been accused of causing an increased number of suicides particularly in young people. Magnesium deficiency is well known to produce neuropathologies. Only 16% of the magnesium found in whole wheat remains in refined flour, and magnesium has been removed from most drinking water supplies, setting a stage for human magnesium deficiency. Magnesium ions regulate calcium ion flow in neuronal calcium channels, helping to regulate neuronal nitric oxide production. In magnesium deficiency, neuronal requirements for magnesium may not be met, causing neuronal damage which could manifest as depression. Magnesium treatment is hypothesized to be effective in treating major depression resulting from intraneuronal magnesium deficits. These magnesium ion neuronal deficits may be induced by stress hormones, excessive dietary calcium as well as dietary deficiencies of magnesium. Case histories are presented showing rapid recovery (less than 7 days) from major depression using 125-300 mg of magnesium (as glycinate and taurinate) with each meal and at bedtime. Magnesium was found usually effective for treatment of depression in general use. Related and accompanying mental illnesses in these case histories including traumatic brain injury, headache, suicidal ideation, anxiety, irritability, insomnia, postpartum depression, cocaine, alcohol and tobacco abuse, hypersensitivity to calcium, short-term memory loss and IQ loss were also benefited. Dietary deficiencies of magnesium, coupled with excess calcium and stress may cause many cases of other related symptoms including agitation, anxiety, irritability, confusion, asthenia, sleeplessness, headache, delirium, hallucinations and hyperexcitability, with each of these having been previously documented. The possibility that magnesium deficiency is the cause of most major depression and related mental health problems including IQ loss and addiction is enormously important to public health and is recommended for immediate further study. Fortifying refined grain and drinking water with biologically available magnesium to pre-twentieth century levels is recommended.
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PMID:Rapid recovery from major depression using magnesium treatment. 1654 86

The study builds on the propositions introduced in a companion paper on the neuropharmacology of cognition and its relation to key findings in psychiatry. Cognitive inhibition is often invoked to explain performance in psychiatric illness. Yet it remains only a general conceptual model of executive dysfunction. Premotor theory proposes both neuroanatomical and neuropharmacological equivalents of conscious and unconscious processes. The interaction between monoaminergic and cholinergic neurotransmission is stated to have an inverse effect on these two fundamental psychological processes. If one conceives of cognitive inhibition as a failure to voluntarily suppress unconscious prepotent responses, then a deficit in monoaminergic antagonism of cholinergic facilitated prepotent responses accounts for the observed behavioural phenotypes. The plasticity of behaviour is further hypothesized to have an equivalent in intracellular signalling leading to plastic changes in neural networks. Apart from inhibition of prepotent responses it permits the formulation of new behavioural phenotypes. At the receptor level Gi-Gq/11 transduction coupling is proposed to mediate this effect. A hypofunctioning monoaminergic system is thought to underlie the clinical pictures of major depression and ADHD. The neurocognitive deficits of depression include memory loss, poor concentration and rumination. ADHD is characterized by inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. Both these syndromes effectively respond to raising serotonin and dopamine levels, respectively. The core symptoms can usefully be attributed to an imbalance between the neuromodulatory effects of monoamines and ACh. Taking the model of monoaminergic-muscarinic receptor interactions presented previously and extended here, a new hypothesis is proposed for the core symptoms of ADHD. Accordingly, impulsivity and hyperactivity result from impaired dopaminergic inhibition and remodelling of muscarinic mediated prepotent responses. The model also predicts memory impairment in major depression by proposing that low serotonin levels in the neocortex is linked to focal hippocampal dysfunction. Hippocampal theta is proposed to trigger phasic monoaminergic activation involved in encoding of cortical traces and plasticity of propotent networks. It proposes a hypothesis for the enhancement of mood and behaviour induced by antidepressants is partly a response to plasticity of neural networks, that is, remodelling of cholinergic-mediated negative habitual behaviours.
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PMID:Neurocognitive deficits in major depression and a new theory of ADHD: a model of impaired antagonism of cholinergic-mediated prepotent behaviours in monoamine depleted individuals. 1699 97

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the treatment of choice in many older individuals with depression and a few other conditions. Like all medical treatments, this intervention has certain possible risks, which include undesirable reactions associated with general anesthesia and those attributed specifically to ECT itself, such as short-term memory loss. The potential association of falls with ECT has not been well studied. Our recent literature search revealed that information on this topic consists mainly of chart reviews and case reports. We present a case of an older woman with a history of recurrent major depressive disorder that required intervention with ECT. She suffered 2 falls during her course of ECT. This case adds to the growing body of anecdotal evidence supporting an association of falls with ECT and highlights the need for more scientifically rigorous data to clarify whether this apparent association is real and/or causally related.
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PMID:Falls associated with electroconvulsive therapy among the geriatric population: a case report. 1858 May 67

Retrograde memory loss where many years disappear suddenly from memory is a known but rare form of memory disturbance among young and old subjects. For those whose brain is affected by a known organic damage such as head trauma the time lost from memory is usually not counted in years, but typically hours or sometimes days or weeks. We review in this article current knowledge on retrograde memory loss as we describe the experience of a 31 year old woman who experienced an unusually long form of retrograde amnesia. She developed the memory loss in the wake of disappointment and a life event. At the time she had major depression. Having described the case and presented the results of neuropsychological testing, we associate her story with the state of knowledge on retrograde memory loss.
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PMID:[Back to the past. Case report and review on retrograde memory loss]. 2145 Nov 95

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is defined pathologically as neurodegeneration associated with Lewy bodies (LB). LB-related symptoms, including olfactory dysfunction, dysautonomia, and mood and sleep disorders, are increasingly recognized as clinical signs that enable the early detection of DLB, because these symptoms often antedate dementia by years or even decades. It remains unknown if the clinical history of LB-related symptoms is sufficient for the prodromal state of DLB to be suspected in memory clinics. We retrospectively investigated the clinical courses, including olfactory dysfunction, dysautonomia, depression, and rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder, of 90 patients with probable DLB. The timing of LB-related symptoms that preceded or followed relative to the onset of memory loss was calculated. LB-related symptoms were present in 79 of 90 patients (87.8%) with probable DLB before or at the time of memory loss onset. These symptoms preceded the onset of memory loss between 1.2 and 9.3 years. We also report on four non-demented patients with a clinical history of LB-related symptoms in our memory clinic. All four patients showed reduced cardiac [(123) I]-metaiodobenzylguanidine levels. Moreover, [(18) F]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography scans revealed glucose hypometabolism in the occipital cortex in two patients. One patient converted to probable DLB with the development of parkinsonism 2 years after major depression was diagnosed. Based on a clinical history of LB-related symptoms, we propose a conceptual framework to identify these symptomatic but non-demented individuals that led us to suspect the underlying pathophysiology of Lewy body disease. Further prospective study is warranted to determine the clinical significance of LB-related symptoms in non-demented patients.
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PMID:Dementia with Lewy bodies: early diagnostic challenges. 2461 5


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