Memory is once again in the news. Researchers at Yale have determined that recent memory is malleable. This challenges mental health and justice-system professionals who believed that when faced with a recent traumatic event, the mind could accurately recall details. When new memory research surfaces, families affected by Alzheimer’s often wonder if memories of loved ones can be manipulated so as to replace agitating thoughts into more peaceful ones. But according to Dr. Allen Dennison, Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University, at a certain stage of dementia, even remembering a sequence of three can be impossible.
While the concept of malleable memory may be important for jurors to recognize in eyewitness reports, it will have little effect on those with dementia.
The Yale research was headed by Dr. Charles A. Morgan III, associate clinical professor at Yale, who found that that it takes little effort to manipulate memory of those who are stressed. As published in the recent International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, his team studied responses of active-duty members of the military after a three-day interrogation ordeal.
The control group received questionnaires with non-leading questions such as “Was there a telephone in the room?” The experimental group was asked the color of the telephone. In the control group 10 percent mistakenly “remembered” a phone compared with 98 percent in the stressed experimental group who mistakenly “remembered” a telephone.
For those looking to the research to see if unhappy memories might be replaced by more pleasant ones — particularly during the end of the day when disturbing memories seem to surface during “sundowning” — Dennison put it in perspective.
Also medical director of Evergreen House Health and Rehabilitation Center in East Providence, he said: “Since many Alzheimer patients cannot register three objects; for example, repeat the words ‘Chicago, baseball, and radio’ — and most cannot remember them in five minutes — anything one says to these patients in the way of redirection is forgotten in a minute or two. So while the research to which you refer may be interesting mechanistically, it would have no relevance to a sun-downing patient. However, our staff psychiatrist spends time listening to content and trying to decipher its meaning and possible non-drug strategies to help manage unhappiness.”
While Dennison acknowledges that Aricept and Namenda often keep patients out of nursing homes for as long as a year, as these have shown to slow memory loss, he is not convinced that often-prescribed antidepressant medications (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors , SSRIs) have long-term value.
He said, “My opinion is that SSRIs don’t help demented patients and they often contribute to behavior problems and low sodium in the blood that can get them readmitted to the hospital. I educate families about this.”
Dennison pointed out that sometimes families are reluctant to stop a medication such as Celexa, because their mother had been on it for seven years. He said, “I explain that antidepressants are often started in early dementia to help patients who lose interest in usual activities. I do it this in my office practice. But I stop them when the memory loss becomes obvious due to their lack of efficacy, side effects, and cost.”
He added that at this stage, he channels the television character Dr. House, saying: “It did not work very well because now she is in a nursing home.”
For now, it seems that the greatest hope to brighten the lives of patients with memory impairment is music. Dennison pointed out that at the nursing home, “The women love the Elvis impersonator. That would be an example of a positive memory from when perhaps Elvis re-awakened sexual ‘feelings.’ I have often wondered why they love Elvis so much.”
When it comes to music research as well as happy patients, faces reflect the value of a song.
Copyright 2013 Rita Watson/ All Rights Reserved
NEWSPAPER LINK: Memory is sometimes malleable, sometimes lost on Page C2 of Monday, May 13, 2013 issue of Providence Journal
Rita Watson, MPH, is a Journal columnist. She is a 2013 MetLife Foundation Journalist through the Gerontological Society of America and New America Media.