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Post by Pari Patel on Jan 7, 2016 15:56:37 GMT -4
Great article! We often see this portrayed in movies such as The Bourne Identity, but never really think that it can happen in real life. The real-life examples were heartbreaking. I can’t imagine not being able to identify yourself or not being able to recall any memory of the present or past. I found it interesting that loss of personal identity rarely happens because of structural damage rather it is caused by psychological distress. Its also interesting to note that personal identity draws from different parts of the temporal lobe. The case of Ms. Menatta and the idea that antibodies from her ovarian cancer had caused her amnesia was very interesting. The idea that the cancer can affect the immune system, which can therefore target the nervous system and cause encephalitis is very fascinating but I wonder if there has been any research done on this. It will be exciting to see where research takes this topic in the future.
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Post by Diana Khaw on Jan 7, 2016 16:14:46 GMT -4
This is a really interesting article. I didn't know there are different ways to get amnesia. Such as a person getting amnesia from antibodies attacking the brain or from a viral illness. It has to be an interesting experience to not know who you are suddenly or gradually, and not know it and to just create a new identity. I guess the maker of Borne Identity was on to something. I think we should do more research on this topic to figure out why people experience these dissociative state and fugue. I wonder if these individuals will ever regain their memories.
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Post by Robert Seminara on Jan 7, 2016 19:23:43 GMT -4
What is a person without the memory of who he/she is? I remember reading an article about Ronald Reagan battling Alzheimers and it reminded me of what some of these patients have gone through. I believe the former president was attending his son's college graduation, and greeted him at the end of the ceremony as if he met him for the first time. Although this article and similar cases may sound very interesting, it is perhaps the toughest thing for a family to go through. The loss of identity can be a harrowing experience for the patient and loved ones. What's revealing is how transient the cases mentioned in this article were. Would a person even know to get help if he/she had no recollection of an event? Could a person become a criminal and not even know it? Understanding how delicate the mind can be, and hearing about how certain areas of the brain like the hippocampus and cerebellum, or even how receptors can be a target, offers more insight into human behavior and warrants further research.
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Post by Esaias Jordaan on Jan 7, 2016 19:49:32 GMT -4
Dissociative amnesia is a relatively common condition, with a lifetime prevalence of 6% in some studies. This article relates some interesting examples, especially relating to transient epileptic amnesia, a subtype I was not familiar with. The examples where patients enter a dissociative state for extended periods are dramatic and interesting to read about, but most cases deal with very short-term loss of memory and often goes unreported. If the events that occur to trigger these episodes feed other psychiatric conditions then it would be important to identify dissociative episodes in careful patient interviews. It is also good to be familiar with the possibility of an autoimmune etiology for amnestic disorders, as in the case of Ms Cahalan. I imagine her case would have been a very challenging one, with autoimmune causes well down the differential. In any case, I applaud the author for bringing some light to this relatively common condition.
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Post by David Schwartz on Jan 7, 2016 23:38:17 GMT -4
I think most people have touched on what I'm about to say, but more than anything as aspiring physicians most whom will require a primary care sort of training on the medical service. As with all diseases that can encompass many differentials. I.e. Chest pain and the whole differentials it entails. It shows us that a fugue state or total loss of identity or memory may not be just a psychological result but a physiological pathology causing their identity and memory problems. As we gather more information about medicine as a whole it also requires us to be able to differentiate what is relevant and what is not. Because as these cases present, its important to recognize that what the patient may be experiencing may be more then just a psychological problem. And we must be diligent in our clinical diagnosis, to not just rush to call psychiatry or (sometimes) neurology and that there may be medical intervention to help treat and get these patients better or managed better without soring medical tests costs and consultations to add on to the stress of the patient and the hospitals resources.
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Post by Olubukola Falade on Jan 10, 2016 19:56:36 GMT -4
It is often said that humans are nothing more than the sum of our memories. The memory is a very important part of our lives from recollecting events to rembering who we are, the inability rembering what makes you who you are can be very challenging. Memory loss can be caused by a variety of things like medication, alcoholoism, infection, depression, old age, head injury, Alzheimer's, stroke and so on. Memory loss can happen to anybody and memory loss from most of these conditions can be reversed. Making memory involves taking information in, consolidating the information and been able to retrieve the information. If information isn't taken in properly or stored properly, there will be difficulty retrieving. Memory loss can happen to anybody And the use of technology such as mobile phone to keep track of information has helped a great deal in dealing with memory loss.
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Post by Joel Romance on Jan 11, 2016 2:16:52 GMT -4
Don't we all wish that we could wake up with the super human powers of Jason Bourne while at the same time retaining our memory banks? At the time, I thought of the movie mentioned in the article as a simple form of Hollywood trickery. Little did I know, that these events have been happening for centuries, most being undocumented, although there are those that have been documented and lead the medical community to more questions than answers. The whole idea of our brain suddenly forgetting everything it had ever remembered is somewhat of a nightmare. Amnesia, rogue antibodies, and blunt force trauma, these things may be common place with many diseases, but to find out that they play such a vital role in the total amnesiac events of certain individuals is anything but a dramatic movie plot. While much is still unknown about the human brain, I still find it fascinating that these events can occur with no real explanation. One of the most interesting topics of the whole article is that of the transient epileptic amnesia (TEA). An event like this occurs without anyone noticing is extraordinary feat of the human brain. Hour long seizures without symptoms seems scary when you come to think about it. The damage that could occur may be permanent and no one may ever know the reason for it. Considering my interests are elsewhere and not so much on neurology, these types of events do intrigue me. I would indeed like to research and read more on this topic in the future and hope that the individuals affected find an answer or treatment to better their personal and professional lives.
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Post by Adham Saleh on Jan 12, 2016 0:41:56 GMT -4
This article highlighted different examples of memory loss through real life stories. When we talk about memory loss we usually think about car accidents or head trauma but there are other ways a person may lose his/her memory. There are two types of memory loss one is organic and the other is inorganic. The organic psychogenic amnesia refers to a loss of. Memory due to head injury, substance abuse, or even seizures. The inorganic type is more of a traumatic experience that a person denies to avoid emotional pain. The article talked about both types. Unfortunately, there is no cure for Amnesia as of yet but I am hopeful that we are close to developing one.
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Post by Lamin Ceesay on Jan 12, 2016 15:46:57 GMT -4
This is a very good article, in a topic that affects so many families in the world. amnesia can be very devastating to not only the patient, but more so the their immediate family and friends. Menatta said that "antibodies from the her ovarian cancer had caused her amnesia." this is something that many people don't know about. Certain tumors do set off immune responses that inadvertently targets the nervous system, causing encephalitis. However, an ovarian cancer causing loss of personal identity?
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Post by Vandana Yanamadala on Jan 13, 2016 12:16:58 GMT -4
This is a very interesting article. I wonder why certain memories are easier to recall than others. It's interesting that "Sam" was unable to remember her own name but was capable of remembering being in a salt water pool. Would these lost memories be easier to recall if triggered by sights or smell? I am curious as to if highly emotional situations such as hallucinations would still be as easily recallable for Susannah Cahalan if they were more mundane. Perhaps it would be more difficult to recall routine experiences as they are less memorable. I am curious as to how regaining memories feels compared to daydreaming. Would these people be able to differentiate what is actually a real memory versus a hallucination?
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