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Post by Admin on Jan 4, 2016 18:53:22 GMT -4
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Post by Randy Lindgren on Jan 5, 2016 10:59:22 GMT -4
Very interesting article. It is hard to understand some peoples stories, having not experienced anything like theirs before but fascinating! I did not know about Dani-NMDA encephalitis and some of the other types of delusion-inducing illnesses. Retaining the ability to form new memories for a person who has lost their own personal identity must be very weird and hard to deal with. It is scary to think that someone who has lost their own personal identity could adopt a new identity solely based off what other people tell them about THEMSELVES.
I also wonder if some people experience the specific hallucinations that they do based off their memories and past relationships with people, and if these memories are not retained when/if the person becomes conscious, could memories of hallucinations alone trigger recall of past consolidated memory?
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Post by Edak Ekere on Jan 5, 2016 16:54:07 GMT -4
Memory loss, whether caused by organic or non-organic (psychogenic) factors, is a terrible condition to suffer from. It is difficult for the friends and family and even harder for the individual suffering from it. What is more fascinating to me, is psychogenic/dissociative amnesia, where memory is impaired in the absence of any structural brain damage. Psychological trauma can result in a fugue state, where the individual experiences a sudden loss of personal identity lasting a few hours or days and can involve extended periods of wandering and confusion. I also read somewhere that there is some evidence that traumatic stress events can lead to a long-term physical reduction of the volume of the brain's hippocampus, which helps in the making and processing of our memories. The most devastating cases are cases of irreversible memory loss. These people have to adopt new identities, and this puts a huge strain on previous bonds and relationships formed before the memory loss. Great article.
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Post by Josie Asaba on Jan 5, 2016 21:46:28 GMT -4
I am fascinated by the stories in this article. We can never underestimate the power of the brain, how it controls our every being. I find the stories of Benjamin, Susannah and Ashley intriguing. How can one loose a chunk of their memory so easily? I can only imagine how traumatizing their stories are to their families and especially to those experiencing it.These are real lives being affected and nothing will ever be the same with these people. What i do not understand about Benjamin Kyle is why no family member has showed up to claim him. Nobody just appears from nowhere. Unfortunately for him, he would never know what happened before 2004 and his name may not be what he says it is. It is a pity that he will spend the rest of his life with a huge part of it missing with no one ( family) to help fill in some of the blank spaces. As the article said, this can happen to anyone and it is important that we recognize how lucky we are and learn to be grateful of the gift of life and whom we share it with.
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Post by Rebekah Amarini on Jan 6, 2016 0:06:52 GMT -4
Silver Alert! How often are we driving along a highway and see a nearby sign with a license plate listed alerting us that there is a person that is “missing?” We might look around a bit to check if the car speeding past us is the lost fugue but most of the times we forget (ironically) all about it in a few minutes. The state of dementia or the fugue dissociative state is another area of medicine which sometimes gets forgotten about, or we are just left with a diagnosis of dementia and then a long list of questions about what the cause is and will there ever be more understanding about disease resolution.
Amnesia comes in all shapes and sizes and can be brought on by many different things, for example alcoholism with a B1 deficiency affecting the mammillary bodies can cause korsakoff amnesia, or being unable to form anterograde memories if the hippocampus is affected. As practicing physicians we will see many of our patients affected by amnesia/dementia and they should be cared for just the same as any other. Too many times are nursing homes stocked with disowned demented patients to sit and wait for the disease to take them or another one in the process of being left bedridden. Our attention should be directed at further understanding and researching the neurology aspects of the state of dementia/amnesia, which will result in better quality of care for these patients.
One thing I found interesting was a study done on Transient Global amnesia (TGA) which noted that when memory is eventually recovered, it’s done so by a “lateral to medial” rule with inferotemporal regions which deal with retrograde memories coming back first, and the limbic structures like the hippocampus comeing back last.
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Post by Ali Rizvi on Jan 6, 2016 10:30:06 GMT -4
This article brought relevance to a topic that most people have not heard of or only saw in movies such as the The Bourne Identity. Personally I've read up on this topic for exam purposes, but to read real-life examples of people suffering from this condition is sad yet so fascinating. The idea that someone can travel 100's of miles with anew identity without the ability to recollect any of it is so hard to understand. I can see why people would be critical of someone who stated that they don't know how they got there and call them a liar, (as in the individual that was on the Dr. Phil show). I have a interest in becoming a Hematologist/Oncologist, and the example of the women with ovarian cancer with associated antibodies attacking certain receptors in the brain causing amnesia and epilepsy is extremely interesting so much so, that I have been reading up on journals and database for more cases similar to this one. Going forward, I would like to see if any research is done in this area to gather more information on this pathological process, delineating specific causes and hopefully coming up with better treatments for these individuals so we can possible prevent a person from going missing due to this.
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Post by James Bassford on Jan 6, 2016 10:37:51 GMT -4
This article was very interesting in that it make us think about how to manage people with dementia. In reading a recent article, facilities are now being set up that are geared towards patients with Alzheimers. These facilities are patterned after full scale cities that are enclosed by a fence and have guarded access. These facilities are allowing these patients to live independent lives but in a safe manner. In studying these "towns" it showed that patients had an improved memory attributed to forming new friendships and daily routines.
This conjures up more thoughts regarding the argument of whether or not environment plays a larger roll in memory loss or not. The genetic basis of memory loss has been well studied, but the environmental causes are still something we need to explore more. It will be interesting to see where research goes in the future.
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Post by Ravneet Dhaliwal on Jan 6, 2016 10:58:08 GMT -4
This was indeed a interesting article that highlighted the many complexities of the human brain in regards to memory loss. The article further depicted the various forms through real life cases. For example, the woman with ovarian cancer who not only lost her memory, but was able to develop an entirely new identity. I assumed these cases were only seen in fictitious movies and not in real life. The woman attributed the cause of her condition to the antibodies formed by the cancer, but that provides little evidence to the development of a new identity. There seems to be a larger issue than just an immune system disorder, which forces us to analyze the psychological component of the illness. I believe it would serve valuable to focus on the patient's life prior to the insult; therefore, allowing us to note if there were any precipitating factors like stress or depression.
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Marie-Christine Bergeron
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Post by Marie-Christine Bergeron on Jan 6, 2016 11:20:33 GMT -4
This very interesting article depicted different examples of memory loss due to different conditions (seizures, cancer, auto-immune manifestations). I wasn't personally aware of that type of memory loss , but this topic is new to me, and probably more common than we think. In my very short experience in the PACS clinic, I saw a lady who had a very difficult childhood and adolescence. She was mentally, physically and sexually abused by members of her family and she states that she doesn't remember anything from the day she was born to when she was 16 years old and left home. For many years, some events or conversations triggered defensive mechanisms or anger without her understanding why, and after seeing a therapist and going through psychoanalysis, some memories of abuse came back to her. Had she not seen the therapist, she would have never remembered the 16 years of her life which she dissociated herself from. It is incredible to me what the brain can do, and this article was an eye opener for me.
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Post by Deepa Joseph on Jan 6, 2016 14:46:58 GMT -4
This article was very fascinating to read. I cannot imagine how personal identity can change and the person cannot even recall who they used to be. It was interesting to learn that certain antibodies can affect the central nervous system, leading to amnesia. I always thought loss of personal identity was due to some sort of psychological stressors. I didn't know it was due to some sort of structural defect. Callahan's story about NMDA receptor encephalitis was intriguing, especially how she thought she had the ability to age others. The psychogenic symptoms were all due to an organic defect. Her immune system was fighting against her and the only treatment was to
reset her immune system.
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Post by Denise Ellis on Jan 6, 2016 16:50:46 GMT -4
Transient epileptic amnesia is a profound experience that causes an individual to loose their memory after perfoming a cognitive function dependent upon the frontal lobe. TEA exists since seizures emitt electrical changes in the brain through the temporal lobe, bypassing the area of the brain used for higher order of learning. Automatic tasks depend on the basal ganglia and the cerebellum. This explanation further elucidates the notion that the mind can perform tasks and make thoughtful decisions in the abscence of the temporal lobes participation. This cool concept should give researchers and s tudents on this topic a better appreciation for the brains superiority in maintaining it's ability to carry out important functions without need to engage the areas involved in memory.
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Post by Tuong X. Nguyen on Jan 6, 2016 18:41:58 GMT -4
Ok. This article really hit home with me. My father in law just passed away with Alzheimer Disease about 4 years ago. It was the worst disease that I've witnessed. He totally forgot all his relatives (wife, kids, and grandkids). In addition, he thought that we were out to hurt him and he tried to escape back to his birth town. He even jumped off from a second floor building to catch the bus. In my opinion, any form of amnesia is devastating to the person relatives because they are the one who are witnessing the events and I do hope there are more fundings or research to these diseases. Hillary Clinton is pledging to get more fundings to find a cure to Alzheimer and I am totally supported of that idea.
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Post by Ajouka Jeyakumar on Jan 7, 2016 13:29:32 GMT -4
I found this article very fascinating. Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is frightening to think about. Not only does the patient have memory loss, hallucinations, delusions and seizures during the autoimmune attack, but after treatment the hallucinations and delusions are the only memories left. In regards to Transient Epileptic Amnesia (TES), I have never heard of it prior to this read. I found it hard to wrap my head around the fact that you could have an amnesic seizure for an hour but look completely normal and continue on with regular daily activities. However, TES does make sense because these daily activities ("automatic tasks"), are more dependent on the function of the basal ganglia and cerebellum rather than the temporal lobe. I feel like we take our short term and long memory for granted. I don't know how I would feel if I was Dr. Z and I found out that I just examined, documented and treated a patient an hour earlier but have no memory of it.
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Post by Peter Wahba on Jan 7, 2016 13:43:18 GMT -4
I think this article points out a great generality in terms of how delicate the brain is and how its importance goes beyond sending signals throughout the body. It is apparent that the brain aids in forming a sense of identity for people and this identity can be so fragile that in times of great stress the brain can alter someone's reality so much that they adopt an entirely new personality. This article has made it evident that the brain can also be affected through internal factors as well such as anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis as in the case of Susannah Cahalan who suffered from hallucinations and delusions. Even more, the brain can undergo transient epileptic amnesia while seemingly leaving the affected appear normal in behavior and speech and not getting in the way of someone such as a doctor still being able to correctly diagnose pneumonia while having no recollection of the event. It's a fascinating topic leaving more room for research and questions.
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Post by brandonkrout on Jan 7, 2016 14:16:16 GMT -4
Neat article. A topic that isn't taught much in medical school. The part that was most fascinating to me was the idea that psychogenic amnesia is not due to trauma or structural brain damage but due to internal, physiological complications. The specific portion of the article that I found most interesting was about the lady with the ovarian cancer whose immune system inadvertently targeted her nervous system causing encephalitis. That idea is not something that I had previously heard of before and I think it would make for some interesting research. The other case of the lady with brain inflammation called anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis was interesting as well. It's obviously pretty rare, but also pretty cool that it is treatable.
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