Memory Loss - Can it be Recovered?

What is Memory Loss?

Memory loss or amnesia is forgetfulness that is unusual. It can affect the formation of new memories, remembering past incidents or both. Amnesia can be very distressing both for the sufferer and their family or caretakers.

Mild forgetfulness is a normal course of aging. Age-related memory loss can include forgetting the day of the week, name of a near or dear one, inability to recollect which word to use, losing daily use objects or forgetting to pay bills at the right time of the month. It is common and a normal part of aging.

However, when these episodes of memory loss become more frequent it requires medical attention to rule out any other condition such as early onset dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Severe memory loss involves symptoms such as repeating questions, getting lost in familiar places, confusion with respect to places, people and time, difficulty following directions or recipes, poor self-care and unsafe behaviours. This memory loss may be temporary or permanent.

What are the Tips to Improve Your Memory?

Memory can be improved by including the following regimens in daily life:

• Exercise helps to improve blood circulation throughout the body including the brain
• Mentally stimulating activities such as doing puzzles, crosswords and learning new skills can help
• Meditation and mindfulness improve concentration and memory capacity
• Healthy sleep schedules are crucial in maintaining memory
• Social interaction can help maintain memory by preventing conditions such as stress and depression
• Obtaining appropriate treatment for comorbid conditions and regular review of medicines

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Diet choices play a role in memory. Research shows that:

• A balanced nutritious diet with vegetables, fruits, whole grains and low fat protein is recommended
• Eating less food that contains added sugar and refined carbohydrates is helpful
• Fish oil supplements have been found to improve memory
• Diet is important because obesity is associated with memory decline
• Reducing alcohol consumption is important
• Vitamin D is implicated in cognitive functions such as memory
• Consuming food rich in antioxidants such as curcumin is encouraged to prevent memory loss
• Cocoa is associated with enhanced memory functioning

In terms of organizing information for improving memory and recall, the following are helpful:

• Paying keen attention, organizing information and making associations—for example, if we are focused on multiple events or tasks simultaneously, the quality of attention is affected. Therefore, focusing on one task at a time is beneficial.
• Grouping all the related information together is another useful technique—an example of this is clubbing together all the items in a grocery list that start with the letter ‘P’ or remembering all the names of friends who are from one city.
• Visualizing the information can also help to recall it easily—this involves picturing the content of the information in imagination. With respect to chemistry for example, picturing the chemical reaction when one compound is added to another, in terms of colour or reaction.
• Using to-do lists, planners, schedules and calendars can aid memory
• Using a count system where numbers are associated with a series of items that need to be remembered
• Use of mnemonics—a very useful memory tool that helps in remembering important facts or large amounts of information. They can be made up by a user and can be in the form of a song, rhyme, acronym, image, phrase, or sentence. It is very popular among medical students and they will often remember names of a particular complex anatomical arrangement in the body-example the word VAN is used to indicate the order of vein, artery and nerve in certain organs from front to back. It can be used to remember common spelling errors like - the word accommodates - accommodates a double c and a double m.

All the above requires practice and regular memory exercises.

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What are the Types of Memory Loss?

There are several types of memory loss that differ based on symptoms or causal factors.

These include:

• Anterograde amnesia—A common form of amnesia where an individual is unable to form new memories of incidents
• Retrograde amnesia—This occurs when an individual is not able to recall events that occurred in the past. This is generally with respect to recent memories of the past.
• Transient global amnesia—Sudden memory loss that lasts up to 24 hours and includes both anterograde or retrograde amnesia
• Post-traumatic amnesia—Memory loss following a significant trauma to the head
• Dissociative or psychogenic amnesia—Blocking of a psychologically traumatic incident and associated personal information after the trauma
• Drug-induced amnesia—Loss of memory as a side effect of certain drugs such as benzodiazepines (these are ingredients of sleeping pills), which lasts only as long as the drug’s effect is active
• Selective amnesia—A treatment technique used in psychiatry to erase the memory of distressing events through electroconvulsive therapy
• Post-hypnotic amnesia—Loss of memories of events during hypnosis used as a treatment for psychological disorders
• Infantile amnesia—This is really a term and not truly memory loss and is used to describe lack of memories at a young age during infancy as the brain is still under development

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What Causes Memory Loss and Forgetfulness?

Memory problems can be caused due to a variety of factors. Some of these are reversible. Minor head injury, medications, emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression and stress, hypothyroidism, Vitamin B12 deficiency and brain disease can cause forgetfulness which can be reversed.

Other causes of amnesia could be severe head injury, illness, seizures, high fever, emotional shock, brain surgery, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, stroke, after electroconvulsive therapy, after administration of general anaesthetics, drugs such as heroin and conditions related to excessive consumption of alcohol, such as Korsakoff syndrome. Age, anoxia or lack of oxygen, heart attacks, radiation and corticosteroid levels are also implicated in amnesia.

In addition to this, brain-related conditions such as brain tumour, encephalitis, Lyme disease, AIDS, hydrocephalus, epilepsy and syphilis can also lead to memory loss.

What is the Treatment for Memory Loss?

Treatment for amnesia generally depends on the causal factor. For anterograde amnesia, cognitive rehabilitation can be effective. This includes teaching new skills such as organizational techniques like noting down important appointments, and the use of compensatory technology such as planning apps, reminders and to-do lists.

For dissociative amnesia, psychiatric treatment and therapy can be helpful along with emotional support and rest. Concussion or head trauma also benefits from rest. Memory loss due to addiction to alcohol is treated with abstinence, therapy and nutritional supplements.

Occupational therapy and memory training can be effective in dealing with amnesia. Drug-induced amnesia can be treated by changing the medication. Memory loss caused by psychological issues can be relieved when the individual is treated for the underlying issue.

Amnesia due to vitamin deficiencies can be treated by vitamin supplements such as Vitamin B12 and Vitamin B6.

The drugs used for Alzheimer’s disease are being tested as a treatment for amnesia but further research is needed.