Patient Mr Case Study

Stephanie Teeling

Patient MR was found unconscious with a severe laceration on his leg. In questioning MR, he possesses no autobiographical information about himself or anything about his past besides that he has a sister nicknamed “Honeybelle.” I ordered a head MRI, EEG and CT to test for any physical brain trauma before ruling out organic amnesia (Treadway, McCloskey, Gorden & Cohen). Common areas damaged in memory loss are the hippocampus, midline diencephalic region and mammillary bodies (Cohen & Banich, 2003). Test results indicated no brain trauma, leading me to believe there was a traumatic accident that resulted in the leg laceration and a family member or friend was greatly injured and the amnesia is an attempt to “block out” the

After testing MR on the famous faces test, he couldn’t identify any past presidents or celebrities which is abnormal, like Patient K, although K’s impairment was specifically from 1945-1984 (Treadway et al., 1992). One abnormality in MR’s case is that his memory impairment is to be informationally specific, but not quite temporally general (Treadway et al., 1992). It is atypical that MR is not able to remember anything about his past except for his sister’s existence and nickname. His case is like Patient P.N. in that he remembers little “islands of information” such as a nickname (Schacter, 1983). Psychogenic retrograde amnesia tends to be temporally general, and would usually result in the loss of all autobiographical information. MR’s symptomology is similar to Jane from Blindspot, in that he was still able to speak in the languages he could previously (Blindspot). Similarly, MR and Jane both possessed their previous skills. MR’s procedural memory remained, as is typical, and he could still program computers, code and problem solve. I would like to study MR long-term, as psychogenic amnesia tends to subside and memory returns within a month. In a few weeks, I will see if his memories have come flooding back like they do in the show 24 for Terri (24). It would be typical if MR gains back all memory except for the fugue

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