Electroconvulsive therapy related autobiographical amnesia: a review and case report

ABSTRACT

Introduction: While short-term cognitive impairment following electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is well described and acknowledged, the relationship between ECT and persistent memory impairment, particularly of autobiographical memory, has been controversial.

Methods: We describe the case of a 70-year-old consultant neurophysiologist, AW, who developed prominent, selective autobiographical memory loss following two courses of ECT for treatment-resistant depression.

Results: His performance on standard measures of IQ, semantic and episodic memory, executive function and mood was normal, while he performed significantly below controls on measures of episodic autobiographical memory.

Conclusions: Explanations in terms of mood-related memory loss and somatoform disorder appear unlikely. We relate AW's autobiographical memory impairment, following his ECT, to reports of similar autobiographical memory impairment occurring in the context of epilepsy, and emphasise the importance of using sensitive approaches to AbM assessment.

KEYWORDS:

• Electroconvulsive therapy

Acknowledgements

We thank the Department of Clinical Psychology of Forth Valley Health Board for their initial assessments of AW. The other authors thank AW for making initial contact with them, after he noted the similarity between his memory loss post-ECT and memory loss described in the context of temporal lobe epilepsy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Matthew Lomas is a Biosciences PhD student. Matthew has previously worked on the TIME project with the University of Exeter, College of Medicine and Health. Matthew is a graduate of BSc Psychology at Bangor University, as well as MRes Psychology from the University of Bath.

Victoria Rickard is a graduate of BSc Psychology from Cardiff University. Victoria volunteered on the TIME project with the University of Exeter, and within the memory clinic of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital during her placement year. Victoria is an aspiring clinical Psychologist, currently working as a mental health support worker.

Fraser Milton is a Senior Lecturer in the Psychology Department of the University of Exeter. His research looks at learning and memory with a particular focus on memory disorders.

Sharon Savage is a clinical neuropsychologist and lecturer in Psychology. Her work focuses on memory in dementia and Transient Epileptic Amnesia.

Andrew Weir is a retired clinical neurophysiologist and senior clinical lecturer, formerly based at the University of Glasgow. He has published in a variety of fields, including Medicine, Clinical Neurology, Neuromuscular Disease, Magnetoencephalography and Biomagnetism.

Adam Zeman is a cognitive neurologist at the University of Exeter Medical School with a long-standing interest in the effect of epilepsy on autobiographical memory, particularly in the context of Transient Epileptic Amnesia. He co-edited Epilepsy and Memory (OUP, 2012) with Narinder Kapur and Marilyn Jones-Gotman.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Dunhill Medical Trust: [Grant Number R322/1113].