Amnesia

What is amnesia?
Amnesia is extreme forgetfulness, going beyond the everyday forgetfulness people
tend to experience, to the point where it affects a person's life by interfering with
their everyday activities.

Two types of Amnesia have been identified:

1. Anterograde Amnesia (AA)- anterograde amnesia is damage to memory of

events occurring after the onset of the amnesia, meaning that people who
experience anterograde amnesia have difficulty remembering things that
have happened after they began to experience the memory loss.
2. Retrograde Amnesia (RA)- retrograde amnesia is damage to a person's
memory of events occurring before the onset of amnesia.

Anterograde amnesia tends to be more common than retrograde amnesia.

What can cause Amnesia?

There are many different causes of amnesia which can be broken down into two
main groups:

Organic Amnesia - organic amnesia, as the name suggests, is when the amnesia is
caused by physical damage to the brain. This damage can come in the form of
brain infections, strokes, head injuries or disorders, such as; Alzheimers, Korsakoff
syndrome or Herpes Simplex Encephalitis (HSE).

Psychogenic Amnesia - psychogenic amnesia is usually caused by psychological

factors, tending towards instances of temporary suppression of disturbing
memories which the person suffering from the memory loss does not find tolerable,
for example a traumatic event could cause a person to develop psychogenic
amnesia as a result of them attempting to smother their memories of the traumatic
event. As psychogenic amnesia is not caused by damage to the brain itself it is
usually only temporary and the person will recover with time.
 Strategies to Help in Coping with Amnesia
While people suffering from psychogenic amnesia are likely to recover their
memory with time the chances of this happening with people who suffer from
organic amnesia are much less likely, however their lives can be greatly improved
with the use of coping mechanisms designed to help them function as well as they
possibly can with their condition. These coping mechanisms have been designed to
maximize the use of the memory functions which the person still has and go
around the disadvantages caused by the condition by looking at different ways in
which the person can carry out tasks.

There are many ways which have been proven to help people with amnesia
maximise their memory's performance;

One way is to use procedural skill learning, this is a form of learning that
is not usually affected by amnesia and involves the repetition of an action in
order to gain a skill which becomes implicit- meaning its a skill we may not
realise we have, for example; a person who plaits their hair everyday will
eventually implicitly remember how to do so and will not have to conscious
remember how to carry out the act. Procedural skill learning is a useful tool
for those who suffer with amnesia because it is a type of memory which is
not usually affected by amnesia so it can be used to teach people which
amnesia who may not be able to consciously learn new things.
Another strategy is to encourage the person suffering from amnesia to
organise new information in their memory, repeating it and making
meaningful associations between the new information and the information
already existing in their memory.
A strategy which has proven to be particularly useful for those with amnesia
is 'errorless learning'. This is where the person learning the new
information is guided towards the correct answer or is given very strong
hints about the correct answer so that the possibility of them remembering it
wrong is seriously decreased.

Another way which can help to improve the quality and ease of the life of someone
with amnesia is with the use of external memory aids.
External memory aids are just arrangements we make in order to record or access
information, for example diaries and notebooks are common memory aids, this
also includes lists, alarm clocks, wall charts, personal organisers or calendars.
Keeping a diary, or a well organised wall chart or calendar can be helpful in
making up for the daily complications of living as an amnesiac such as forgetting
about appointments and such issues however the obvious problem with these types
of memory aids is that obviously the amnesiac would need to remember to use
them and training themselves to do so requires time and patience.

Other solutions in the form of external memory aids are devices and computer
systems which have been created as a method through which amnesiacs can be
reminded to carry out a specific task at a specific time. Typically these devises
would emit a noise in order to bring the persons attention to it then would provide
instructions on what they are required to do at this time. Devices which have been
found to successfully help people with amnesia navigate everyday life include the
'Neuropage' and the 'SenseCam'.
Written Exposition for Amnesia Leaflet
This leaflet was written for either new patients with amnesia or individuals who may have loved
ones who have amnesia, it aimed to inform them on what amnesia is, the differences between
retrograde amnesia and anterograde amnesia and organic and psychogenic amnesia, in the
simplest and most concise manner possible.

The definition of amnesia is a 'pathological impairment of memory function' or an impairment

of cognitive functioning which has a significant impact on a persons memory to the point of it
affecting their everyday actions (Chara & Chara, 2013; Groome et al, 2014). It is important to
point out the different types and causes of amnesia because they would affect which coping
mechanisms would be best for the individual in need of treatment, it is especially important to
emphasis the difference between anterograde amnesia- impairment of memory of events after the
onset of amnesia- and retrograde amnesia, impairment of memory of event before the onset of
amnesia (Groome et al, 2014; Gross, 2010), because it would change the focus of what the
individual would need to focus on during treatment. The distinction between organic and
psychogenic causes of amnesia were also made in the leaflet so that the individual had a clear
understanding of which type of amnesia they have, and in the case of individuals affected by
psychogenic amnesia that the condition may not be permanent (Groome et al, 2014).

The main use of the leaflet was to explain coping mechanisms to the individuals in the hope that
it would aid them in the new development in their lives. The coping mechanisms included;
procedural skill learning, meaningful association and repetition, errorless learning and external
memory aids. Procedural learning is a method which involves the repetition of an action until it
becomes implicit and an individual is not consciously aware of the operation (Lawson, 2003). It
was found by Zanetti et al in 2003 that with the use of procedural skill learning amnesiacs were
able to complete everyday tasks, for instance; washing and dressing (Groome et al, 2014). The
suggestion that the individual afflicted with amnesia should consider information, organise it in
their mind and try to make meaningful associations between it and existing information, is based
on a study in which a group trained to use this strategy was compared to a control group and a
group using drill and practice training and it was found that the group in the memory strategy
training showed a significant improvement in the memory performance tests compared to the
other two groups, while it was found in a follow up four years later that this advantage was only
short term it could still help an individual during the initial adjustment period (Groome et al,
2014; Milders et al, 1995). The effectiveness of 'errorless learning' was indicated by Baddeley
and Wilson (1994), they suggested it was effective because it may help the retrieval of implicit or
splintered memories or as it does not allow for any incorrect responses which means there would
be no reinforcement for them (Groome et al, 2014).
The external memory aids were suggested because they have been proven to aid amnesiacs in
navigating everyday life, for example the recommended electronic devises and computerised
systems recommended, 'Neuropage' and 'SenseCam', have both been found to have been a
substantial support to most of the amnesiacs who used them, support for this can be found in
Loveday and Conway's (2011) report on the SenseCam which showed that not only does it
provide a substantial improvement to an individuals memory of their personal experiences but it
also improves their overall sense of wellbeing (Groome et al, 2014). Support can also be found
in the case study of patient dubbed JC who used external memory aids to successfully
compensate for the problems he faced due to his amnesia- caused by a ruptured aneurysm in his
left posterior cerebral artery (Wilson & Hughes, 1997).
References

Chara, P. P., & Chara, K. M. (2013). Amnesia. MagillS Medical Guide (Online Edition),

Groome, D., Brace, N., Edgar, G., Edgar, H., Eysenk, M., Manly, T., Styles, E. (2014). An
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology: Processes and disorders (3rd ed). New York:
Psychology Press.

Gross, R. (2010). Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour (6th ed). Dubai: Hodder
Education.

Lawson, A. E. (2003). Neurological Basis of Learning, Development and Discovery:

Implications for Science and Mathematics Instruction. Secaucus, NJ, USA: Kluwer
Academic Publishers. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Milders, M. V., Berg, I. J., & Deelman, B. G. (1995). Four-year follow-up of a controlled
memory training study in closed head injured patients. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation,
5(3), 223. doi:10.1080/096020

Wilson, B. A., & Hughes, A. E. (1997). Coping with Amnesia: The Natural History of a
Compensatory Memory System.Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 7(1), 43-56.
doi:10.1080/096020197390275