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Mental Status Exam
 
Mental Status Exam
 

Memory

April 1st, 2023
 
 
 
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Assessing Retrograde Memory

The ability to recall old memories prior to significant brain injury or psycho-trauma.
  • Ask About

  • Recent memory - what is my name; what did you have for breakfast; what meds did you take today?
  • Remote memory - when and where did you get married?
  • Causes of Amnesia

  • Intracranial - stroke, trauma, tumour, infection, epilepsy, degenerative disease
  • Substances - intoxication, withdrawal, Korsakoff's
  • Psychiatric - schizophrenia, psychogenic amnesia
  • Insufficiency - liver, heart, kidneys
  • Hypoxia / anoxia
  • Malingering
  • Interpretation

  • Loss of recent memory - minutes or hours prior to injuryMild to moderate brain damage (concussion)
  • Loss of remote memory - months to yearsConvulsive therapy
  • Temporal grading: sparing of the most distant memoriesKorsakoff syndrome, thalamic or frontal damage
  • Flat profile: equal loss of memory with no temporal gradingHerpes simplex encephalitis, multiple sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia

Assessing Anterograde Memory

The ability form new memories after significant brain injury or psycho-trauma.
  • How to Assess

  • Ask the patient to remember three words (colour, animal, object) and ask them to repeat them in five minutes.
  • Causes of Amnesia

  • Intracranial - stroke, trauma, tumour, infection, epilepsy, degenerative disease
  • Substances - intoxication, withdrawal, Korsakoff's
  • Psychiatric - schizophrenia, psychogenic amnesia
  • Insufficiency - liver, heart, kidneys
  • Hypoxia / anoxia
  • Malingering
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