Alzheimer's & Parkinson's Disease: Memory Loss Mechanisms & Treatments

This assignment delves into the neurological disorders Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, focusing on their impacts on memory. It covers key research papers discussing disease facts (Alzheimer's Association, 2013), animal models for studying these diseases (Le et al., 2014; Weng et al., 2016), the role of fronto–striatal loops in task sequence learning (Meier et al., 2013), neuroinflammation and candidate drugs in Alzheimer's disease (Millington et al., 2014), the involvement of the fornix in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease (Nowrangi & Rosenberg, 2015), nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems for Alzheimer's management (Wen et al., 2017), and case studies like HM, the man with no memory. Additionally, it explores various methods for treating amnesia.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF A RANGE OF
DELUSIONS AND COGNITIVE DISORDERS
(AMNESIA)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
DESCRIPTION OF AMNESIA......................................................................................................1
About amnesia.............................................................................................................................1
Cause...........................................................................................................................................1
WEAKNESS RELATED WITH AMNESIA..................................................................................2
Types of amnesia.........................................................................................................................2
Case study on amnesia................................................................................................................4
TREATMENT FOR AMNESIA.....................................................................................................4
Examples of treatment.................................................................................................................4
DETAIL DESCRIPTION ON AMNESIA......................................................................................5
Critical evaluation.......................................................................................................................5
SUGGESTIONS..............................................................................................................................5
Treatment suggestions.................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Cognitive disorder is the serious mental disease and part of neurocognitive disorder. In
this issue significant impairment occur in the cognitive functioning of human body and
individual fails to perform their routine activities effectively. This issue primarily impact on
person's learning, memory etc (Alzheimer's Association, 2013). Amnesia is the type of cognitive
disorder which is caused by brain damage in which memory of individual partially or wholly
lost. Present study will give detail description of Amnesia. Furthermore, types of Amnesia,
causes and treatment methods will be discussed in the assignment.
MAIN BODY
DESCRIPTION OF AMNESIA
About amnesia
Amnesia is the mental disorder in which memory of individual loss their memory and
fails to recall their experiences. It can be caused by using drugs, dementia or serious head
injuries. In this condition individual can not perform their daily functions properly and person is
required immediate treatment. In this disease people formation of new memories is very difficult.
Confusions and uncoordinated movements are common symptoms of Amnesia. There are mainly
two types of Amnesia: retrograde and anterograde (Nowrangi and Rosenberg, 2015). Brain is
most important part of human body when it gets damage then this disorder occurs and immediate
results in memory loss.
Cause
The main reason of occurring Amnesia is brain damage or injury in brain. Possible causes
of this disorder are as following:
 Stroke: It is one of the common cause due to which this issue occur and individual fails to
remember anything from their memories.
 Lack of adequate oxygen in brain: heart attack, carbon monoxide poisoning etc. are many
issues due to which brain does not get sufficient amount of oxygen.
 Brain tumor is another cause of Amnesia (Meier and et.al, 2013).
 Use of alcohol: If the person is taking alcohol then immune system gets affected and that
affects the brain. Thus chances of increasing this disorder gets increased.
 Stress and trauma: Stress is the most common reason due to which dissociative amnesia
caused. In this situation mind of individual rejects feeling, and fails to recall memories.
1

 Child abuse, sexual abuse are another reason due to which individual gets afraid and that
is the reason that creates condition of stress. Thus, brain fails to work properly and
amnesia occurs in human body (Le, Sayana and Jankovic, 2014).
Illustration 1: Source of Amnesia
Source: (9 Methods for Treating Amnesia, 2014)
Amnesia is related with the pathological disorder which takes place due to physiological
damage. It is serious disorder in which temporary or permanent impairment occur in the human
brain. After that mind of person loss ability to recollect experiences and facts. That completely
depends upon the type of Amnesia that brain is getting affected either compromised or preserved
manner.
WEAKNESS RELATED WITH AMNESIA
Types of amnesia
There are different types of Amnesia and all have slightly differed from each others.
These are as following:
 Anterograde Amnesia: It is the type of disease in which individual becomes unable to
form new memories (Millington and et.al, 2014). That is the situation in which person
forgets thing and can not recall the experience about the event. If someone is talking to
2

Amnesia patients on one day and come next day again to talk then individual will not be
able to remember the incident. Medial temporal lobe of brain is essential part of brain and
in this disorder this lob gets damaged due to head injury, alcohol and drug uses.
 Retrograde Amnesia: It is another type of Amnesia in which person forget about own
self. It is usually occurred due to injury in hippocampal area and temporal lobes of brain.
In this disease early memory of person are safe but individual fail to remember anything.
It is serious mental issue and treatment of this disease is not easily available (Wen and
et.al, 2017).
 Dissociative amnesia: It is another kind of Amnesia in which person fails to remember
personal information. It is generally occurred in such condition when individual faces
violent, crime, abuse. Such patients do not suffer from identity crises, they can get
improved if they block out a stressful condition (Weng and et.al, 2016).
 Infantile amnesia: It is the condition in which person become unable to recall events from
childhood. This issue arises due to immaturity in brain's area.
Illustration 2: Type of disease
Source: ((Millington and et.al, 2014))
Apart from this Transient Global Amnesia, Wernike-Korsakoff's psychosis, Dissociative
amnesia are other types of Amnesia.
3

Case study on amnesia
Henry Molaison is the famous case and known as ' patient HM'. He was suffering from
profound amnesia, when he was seven year old then he got head injury at that time. In the early
years it was minor injury but when he entered in age of 16 then this issue became severe. In
addition, in the age of 27 he became unable to work individually. Initially neurosurgeon has
treated him but later on condition of sense memory loss took place. After that Dr. Wilder
Penfield the famous neuropsychologist has treated him. At that it was observed that hippocampus
is essential part of brain and if this part is damaged then individual can face global amnesia. In
the age of 55 Henry has participated in numerous experiments and many medical professionals
have experiment on the person (HM, the Man with No Memory, 2012). Henry was suffering from
retrograde memory loss.
Henry has actively participated in all experiments and this has helped professionals in
finding root cause of amnesia and providing treatment to patients accordingly. After his death
practitioner have dissected his brain into 2000 slices in order to examine whole brain in to
individual neurons. After that his brain has been preserved for further studies. Now also in every
journals on Amnesia name of Henry is written (9 Methods for Treating Amnesia, 2014).
TREATMENT FOR AMNESIA
Examples of treatment
Treatment of Amnesia is depended upon the severity of disorder, it supports doctors in
make up for memory problem in individual. Various types of treatment for the disease are as
following: Cognitive therapy: It is considered as effective method in which doctors use cognitive
remediation in order to improve thinking process, decision making ability of patient. Bilateral sounds: It is general treatment which is applied for the patients whom minds are
not working. It helps mind in becoming regulated (Meier and et.al, 2013). Neurofeedback: It helps in smooth functioning of brain by this way neural connections
can be recovered thus, individual can overcome from the memory loss condition. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): It is the treatment for
improving recalling ability of human brain by integrating two hemispheres.
 Nutrition: No specific medicines are here for treating such patients. In such condition
these patients can be treated by giving them proper nutrition. Avoiding alcohol or drugs
4

and eating sugar. Patient has to eat food in which amount of protein is high (Millington
and et.al, 2014).
DETAIL DESCRIPTION ON AMNESIA
Critical evaluation
As per the view of Alzheimer's Association, (2013) Amnesia is the serious disorder
which is related with brain challenges and memory loss. Anterograde amnesia (AA) is closely
related with the severity of retrograde amnesia (RA). It is argued that AA and RA occur in
human body at the same time. But it is fact that AA gets occurred due to severity of RA whereas
RA appear disproportionately.
According to Nowrangi and Rosenberg, (2015) cognitive problems and memory loss are
different from each others. Dysfunction of memory is caused from hippocampal lesions. I mos of
the case its is found that memory of early events are encoded in hippocampus. Retrieval deficit is
caused by white matter disease. On other hand Le, Sayana and Jankovic, (2014) stated that
memory loss disease occur in old age persons. In the normal or young age frontal lobe perform
its function properly but with the increasing age functioning of this section of brain become
improper. Meier and et.al, (2013) has argued that mbrain damage is based on the post mortem
neurohistological analysis.
SUGGESTIONS
Treatment suggestions
All above treatment methods are good for the patients of Amnesia but individual should
take sufficient rest and have to sleep properly. It can help in re-functioning of brain and by this
way recovery of brain can be done on immediate bases. By this way patients will get recovered
soon (9 Methods for Treating Amnesia, 2014).
Scientific relaxation and meditation should be adopted by the Amnesia patients.
Meditation is the good treatment that can support in relaxing mind thus, stress level will be
minimized. By this way individual will recall previous events easily and it will help in
minimizing the severity of this disorder. Dietary consideration is another treatment that should be
adopted by patient in order to improve their health.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it can be concluded that Amnesia is the serious mental issue which
occurs due to damage in brain parts. hippocampal lesions is essential part of brain if it does not
5

work properly then individual fails to remember about previous events and experiences.
Bilateral sounds, Cognitive therapy are great treatment that can help in improving condition of
the person. There are no specific medicines are available for improving brain conditions but by
taking healthy diet and avoiding alcohol health of person can be improved.
6

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alzheimer's Association, 2013. 2013 Alzheimer's disease facts and figures. Alzheimer's &
dementia. 9(2). pp.208-245.
Le, W., Sayana, P. and Jankovic, J., 2014. Animal models of Parkinson’s disease: a gateway to
therapeutics?.Neurotherapeutics. 11(1). pp.92-110.
Meier, B. and et.al., 2013. Implicit task sequence learning in patients with Parkinson's disease,
frontal lesions and amnesia: The critical role of fronto–striatal
loops.Neuropsychologia. 51(14). pp.3014-3024.
Millington, C. and et.al., 2014. Chronic neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease: new
perspectives on animal models and promising candidate drugs. BioMed research
international. 2014.
Nowrangi, M. A. and Rosenberg, P. B., 2015. The fornix in mild cognitive impairment and
Alzheimer’s disease. Frontiers in aging neuroscience. 7.
Wen, M.M. and et.al., 2017. Nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems for Alzheimer's
disease management: Technical, industrial, and clinical challenges. Journal of Controlled
Release. 245. pp.95-107.
Weng, J. C. and et.al., 2016. Ceftriaxone prevents the neurodegeneration and decreased
neurogenesis seen in a Parkinson’s disease rat model: an immunohistochemical and MRI
study. Behavioural brain research. 305. pp.126-139.
Weng, J. C. and et.al., 2016. Ceftriaxone prevents the neurodegeneration and decreased
neurogenesis seen in a Parkinson’s disease rat model: an immunohistochemical and MRI
study. Behavioural brain research. 305. pp.126-139.
Online
9 Methods for Treating Amnesia, 2014. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-resilient-brain/201406/9-methods-treating-
amnesia>. [Accessed on 23rd September 2017].
7

HM, the Man with No Memory, 2012. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/trouble-in-mind/201201/hm-the-man-no-
memory>. [Accessed on 23rd September 2017].
8