What Is a Memory Disorder?

Memory disorders refer to individuals in a state where they cannot remember or recall information or skills, which may be permanent or temporary memory disorders due to pathophysiological or situational reasons. Memory includes memorization, retention and reproduction, which is closely related to neuropsychological functions. According to neurophysiological and biochemical studies, memory is divided into transient memory (within minutes and seconds), short-term memory (days) and long-term memory (months, years). Memory and forgetting are accompanying, and forgetting has a time pattern and selectivity. The most recently forgotten material is the fastest to forget, and it gradually develops into distant forgetting. Things that once attracted high attention are harder to forget.

Basic Information

English name: memory disorders
Visiting department: Geriatric psychiatry
Multiple groups: Seniors
Common locations: brain

Common causes: Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia and other diseases, the brain is affected by external forces, severe stress events, long-term drinking or severe malnutrition, etc.
Common symptoms: Memory loss, forgetting, fiction, fiction, latent memory

Causes of memory disorders

Memory disorder is a symptom group that can appear in many diseases, for example:

Dementia

Including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia and other types. According to whether the disease is reversible, it can be divided into reversible dementia and irreversible dementia. Reversible dementia includes dementia caused by hypothyroidism, or some malnutrition dementia (such as lack of vitamin B), pseudo-dementia (such as depression) and so on. Irreversible dementia is more common. According to the different parts of the brain, it can be divided into cortical dementia (such as Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia) and subcortical dementia (such as some vascular dementia, dementia caused by Parkinson's disease, etc.).

Brain trauma

Refers to the brain damage caused by external forces, which can cause amnesia in severe cases. Memory disorders can be transient or permanent. In addition, brain trauma is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia.

3. Stress-induced memory disorders

Selective amnesia occurs in some patients after severe stress events. Some researchers believe that persistent stress events can manipulate the hippocampus of the human brain, causing memory impairment.

4. Korsakov syndrome

The main cause of the syndrome is chronic drinking or severe malnutrition. Long-term drinking causes chronic gastritis and causes vitamin B malabsorption. The clinical manifestations are memory dysfunction, time-directed dysfunction, fiction, memory fiction and forgetting.

Other diseases such as mental retardation and carbon monoxide poisoning can cause memory disorders. Related factors of memory impairment include: acute or chronic hypoxia, decreased cardiac output, water or electrolyte imbalance, nervous system disorders, excessive environmental disturbances, etc.

Clinical manifestations of memory impairment

Memory disorders can be classified according to clinical manifestations into the following types

Memory loss

Comprehensive dysfunction of the memory process is most commonly seen in patients with organic mental disorders such as dementia and in normal elderly.

2. Forget

(1) Anterograde amnesia Anyone who cannot retain newly acquired information is called antegrade amnesia. Although the patient can respond appropriately to a new sensory message, it is limited to the occurrence of the stimulus. Once the stimulus disappears, the patient loses the ability to respond correctly within a few seconds. So the patient is easy to forget the near things, but the distant memory still exists. This disease is more common in chronic alcoholism.

(2) Retrograde amnesia Memory that has been lost for a period of time before normal brain dysfunction occurs is called retrograde amnesia; patients cannot recall the experience immediately before the onset of this disorder. Some non-specific brain disorders (concussion, electric shock, etc.) and anesthesia can cause this disease.

(3) Psychogenic forgetting Psychogenic forgetting has the characteristic of selective forgetting, that is, things that are forgotten are selectively limited to painful experiences or things that may cause psychological distress. It occurs after major psychological stress, which can be seen in acute stress disorder.

3. Wrong construction

Refers to a patient who mistakes or confuses the memory of a place, especially time, when recalling an event that he or she experienced in the past, such as remembering what happened during this time period to happen at another time.

4. Fiction

Refers to a patient who forgets a personal experience and fills in and replaces it with a completely fictional story, and then firmly believes. Most of the content talked about by some patients is the remnants of previous memory. They are connected together in a rich and vivid way and are absurd under the guidance of the questioner. Such as dementia patients and chronic alcohol poisoning psychosis.

5. Latent memory

Also known as distorted memory. The patient recalls the experience of others or what he has seen and heard as his own personal experience or the true experience of himself as what others have seen and heard.

Memory impairment test

Can be tested using memory tests, such as Wechsler memory scale. There are currently many tools for detecting human memory, which need to be performed by professionals.

Memory impairment diagnosis

1. Prosecution or oblivion observed.

2. I can't tell if a certain performance has been seen before.

3. Inability to learn and acquire new knowledge and technologies.

4. Unable to use previously learned techniques.

5. Can't recall certain facts.

6. Can't recall the more important events that happened in the past or recently.

Memory impairment is a more general term, and it is often necessary to further clarify the cause of it. Such as Alzheimer's disease, stress disorders, brain trauma, alcohol-induced mental disorders and so on.

It should be reminded that after entering old age, human brain function will gradually deteriorate with age, and memory function will also decline to some extent. Therefore, the diagnosis of memory impairment needs to be distinguished from the memory loss caused by normal aging.

Memory disorders treatment

As mentioned earlier, there are many diseases of memory disorders, and the treatment methods are different according to the diseases that cause memory disorders. Some reversible memory disorders, such as vitamin B ₁ deficiency causing Wernicke encephalopathy (Korsakov syndrome) in the early treatment with vitamin B1, memory will be restored. Pseudo-dementia can be improved with psychotropic drugs and / or psychotherapy. For most irreversible memory disorders, symptomatic treatment has a certain effect on alleviating some symptoms of patients, delaying the progress of the disease, and reducing the burden on caregivers.

Prevention of memory disorders

Preventive measures for memory disorders also vary according to the disease they cause. In general, healthy lifestyles such as a reasonable diet, moderate exercise, good learning, and positive emotions can help prevent the occurrence of memory disorders.