9/19/2023 0 Comments Known social amnesia cases![]() ![]() “We’re really looking for a toxic effect,” he said.ĭeMaria wondered whether the spate of new synthetic drugs and unknown contaminants on the illicit market might have something to do with it, but “we don’t even know if it’s related to drugs,” he said. Though the MRI findings were described as “ischemic,” meaning there was a lack of blood flow to that part of the brain, it is unlikely that a stroke or lack of oxygen alone would cause such a specific and symmetrical injury to the hippocampus, said DeMaria. “All we had was the medical records,” DeMaria said. But none of these cases was fresh, making the search for a culprit all the more difficult. All but one patient tested positive for opioids or had a history of opioid use. ![]() They found 10 other patients who had been seen in eastern Massachusetts hospitals between 20, bringing the total to 14. The man with no memory: Navy vet wakes up, speaks only Swedishīut now faced with the first known cluster of its kind, the Massachusetts Department of Health sent out a statewide alert in February, hoping to keep doctors on the lookout for additional cases. The pattern seen on these patients’ MRIs was so rare that it had been described in only a handful of earlier case reports, including a couple of patients with cocaine abuse, one with carbon monoxide poisoning and one patient in France who had inhaled heroin, an opioid. DeMaria was contacted by Barash, who could not be reached for comment, to help investigate the cluster.ĭoctors are trying to uncover whether these patients reveal an emerging syndrome related to substance use or whether it’s something else altogether. ![]() Alfred DeMaria Jr., the state epidemiologist for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. “We couldn’t really address what was causing this,” said Dr. The patients, ages 22 to 52, came to the hospital between October 2012 and November 2015. The fourth, who was not tested, was known to have a history of opioid abuse. The patients could remember earlier things, but they couldn’t make new memories, a phenomenon called anterograde amnesia.Īlso peculiar, three of the four patients tested positive for opioids. The hippocampus is a seahorse-shaped structure that plays a role in memory and emotion. Four patients, mysteriously stricken with a sudden amnesia, had the same rare finding on MRI: A pair of tiny structures deep in their brains, called the hippocampus, was completely knocked out on both sides. Jed Barash, a neurologist in the Boston area, noticed a pattern between 20. What started with four patients with a puzzling form of amnesia turned into 14, and doctors are searching for others.ĭr. ![]()
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