Memory Loss

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Chapter 5: Memory Loss

Overview:

• Describes the three major types of memory classification
• Focuses on memory loss in dementia and lists the behavioural changes of people afflicted by dementia
• Expresses the common causes of memory loss
• Lists various mechanisms for assessing memory loss
• Includes a checklist of exacerbating factors in memory loss
• Provides easy-to-read principles and hints useful for treating and managing memory disorders
• Includes a tabulated summary of some drugs available for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease

Description:

Memory loss is a common complaint as people grow older. Memory function involves the ability to perceive something, the ability to register this perception, the ability to encode and store the memory and the ability to retrieve this information at a later date. In this chapter, the reader will learn about memory loss; its causes, assessment, treatment and more.

Topics:

• Classification of memory
• Memory loss in dementia
• Causes of memory loss
• Medical assessment of memory loss
• Differential diagnosis of dementia
  • Delirium
  • Other psychological disorders
• Factors that exacerbate memory changes
  • Checklist
  • Medications
• Treatment of memory disorders
  • Non-pharmaceutical techniques
  • Pharmacological treatment
  • Prevention of dementia
  • Improvement in cognitive and functional symptoms
  • Treatment for behavioural and psychological symptoms

Speaker / Author:

Dr Jane Hecker
Jane Hecker is a senior consultant physician in geriatrics and general internal medicine at the Repatriation General Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide (South Australia) where she has established a memory disorders studies unit. Jane is a lecturer at Flinders University with involvement in teaching at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has clinical and research interests in the assessment and management of memory disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias with more specialised interests in dementia and driving and dementia and the role of the caregiver.

Jane has been the principal investigator in several clinical trials of treatment in Alzheimer’s disease and has published extensively in academic medical literature and in textbooks. She is on the board of the Rosemary Foundation of the South Australian Alzheimer’s Association, the executive committee of the Australasian Consortium of Centres for Clinical Cognitive Research, and the Federal Council of the Australian Society for Geriatric Medicine.

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