Affiliations: Division of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ, USA | Cogent Systems, Inc., 1112 Weston Road, # 218, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33326, USA. Tel.: +1 954 474 1718; E-mail: [email protected]
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: George P. Prigatano, Ph.D., Clinical
Neuropsychology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph’s
Hospital and Medical Center, 350 West Thomas Road, Phoenix, AZ
85013, USA. Tel.: +1 602 406 3671; Fax: +1 602 406 6115; E-mail:
[email protected].
Abstract: Twenty five (25) out of 29 patients (86%) with unequivocal memorydisorders who received Memory Compensation Training (MCT) completed both a brief survey regarding their use of memory compensations and the Memory Compensation Questionnaire. Twenty-two (22) of the 25 patients (88%) reported daily use of memory compensation several months to years after the onset of their memory problems. The benefits included, by their report, being more productive, less disorganized, and less confused. Patients with memory disorders, who received MCT, also reported more frequent use of compensations than older normal adults studied by Dixon et al. [6]. The present sample of patients report proportionally spending more time to remember and greater reliance on those around them to help them to remember. The findings suggest that patients who are taught memory compensations tend to use them after the training period and show a different pattern of compensatory activities compared to normal older adults.
Keywords: memory disorder, Memory Compensation Training, subjective reports, use and benefits of compensations
