Abstract
Alcoholic Korsakoff’s syndrome is characterized by severe amnesia, also affecting spatial memory. To date, research on cognitive rehabilitation in these patients is scarce. Aim of the present study is to examine the efficacy of a mnemonic strategy training in patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome. A randomized controlled exploratory study was performed. A convenience sample of 14 patients with amnesia due to alcoholic Korsakoff’s syndrome was included and randomized into a mnemonic strategy training group (n = 7) and a control group (n = 7). The training group completed a 3-day 45–60 min mnemonic strategy training that focused on specific strategies to encode and retrieve information about specific objects and their locations in virtual rooms, using labeling, verbal reasoning and mental imagery. The control group only received care as usual. Outcome measure was an object-location memory task consisting of novel, untrained object locations administered 1 day before the intervention, as well as 1 day and 1 week after completing the intervention. Patients in the intervention group were able to acquire and use the strategies, but no significant differences were found between the intervention group and the control group, and no significant change in performance was demonstrated compared to baseline 1 day and 1 week after the intervention. To conclude, the mnemonic strategy training in KS patients did not result in a better spatial memory performance 1 day or 1 week after training completion compared to participation in the regular non-cognitive treatment program that focused on occupational therapy, music therapy and exercise.
Highlights
Korsakoff’s syndrome (KS) is characterized by profound amnesia for contextual, episodic information, due to bilateral damage to the diencephalon, often in the context of chronic alcohol use disorder (AUD) (Arts et al 2017)
The current study investigates the efficacy of this mnemonic strategy training in amnesic patients with KS
Neither a significant main effect than 20% compared to baseline performance did not differ post-training (MST: n = 3, TAU: n = 3) or 1 week after training completion [mnemonic strategy training (MST): n = 3, TAU = 5; χ(1) = 1.17, p = 0.28]
Summary
Korsakoff’s syndrome (KS) is characterized by profound amnesia for contextual, episodic information, due to bilateral damage to the diencephalon, often in the context of chronic alcohol use disorder (AUD) (Arts et al 2017). KS patients were severely impaired at the conscious recollection of object locations in virtual rooms, but had spared implicit knowledge of these object locations even after a 1-week delay (Postma et al 2008) Findings like this may have clinical implications, as spared cognitive functions can be used to overcome cognitive deficits. An effective mnemonic strategy training has been developed in the field of older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), often due to Alzheimer’s disease (Hampstead et al 2012a). In this intervention, patients were trained to use specific mnemonic strategies to encode and retrieve information about specific objects and their locations in a virtual room. The current study investigates the efficacy of this mnemonic strategy training in amnesic patients with KS
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