Retrograde amnesia for medical and other knowledge in a physician with Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Previous studies of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) demonstrate that these patients exhibit marked loss of premorbldly acquired knowledge with a tendency for relative preservation of information from the distant past. Few studies have examined the multiple components of remote memory in the same patients and no study has measured memory for old (1.e. obsolete) and recent aspects of any patient's professional knowledge. We studied two retired physicians: an internist (A) with probable AD, and a general practitioner (P) with Parkinson's disease. Both were symptomatic for about 5 years. A displayed marked and general deficits in remote memory, and on almost all tests showed relatively better memory for more recent information. P performed normally on all remote memory tests. In AD, memory for premorbid knowledge appears to deteriorate rapidly over the course of the disease; more recent memories may be partially protected because they are more often rehearsed.