Amnesia Research

Memory loss, also called amnesia, occurs when a person loses the ability to remember events and information they would normally be able to recall. This could be something that happened only seconds or minutes ago, or a memorable event that happened in the past. The memory loss may have started suddenly or may have been getting worse over the last year or so. 

Doctors classify memories as either:

• Immediate memories, such as sounds, which are only stored for a few seconds.
• Short-term or recent memories, such as telephone numbers, which stay in your memory for 15-20 seconds. The brain can store about seven chunks of short-term information at any time.
• Long-term or remote memories - more permanent memories, which have been reinforced because you've repeatedly gone over them in your mind.

Generally, GPs find that patients who see them about memory loss are most likely to have:

• Anxiety
• Stress
• Depression

Their memory loss is due to poor concentration and not noticing things in the first place because of a lack of interest. Sleeping problems make the memory loss worse.

Other common causes of memory loss are:

• a head injury, for example after a car accident
• a stroke that cuts off some of the blood supply to the brain and causes brain tissue to die

These will cause sudden memory loss, where you either forget events that happened before the trauma (retrograde amnesia), or you forget everything that happened after the trauma (anterograde amnesia).

Ways to cope

• Keep everyday items, such as car keys, in the same place and try to do things in the same order each time.
• Write information down and keep paper and a pencil near the phone.
• Keep a diary at home as well as at work to remind you to do daily tasks.
• Use an alarm to help you remember to do something in the future, such as taking something out of the oven.
• Repeat back to someone important information you need to remember.