Patients with Alzheimer’s or other types of advanced dementia can briefly recover their memory before death, in some cases over a period of up to six months before the end of their life. The new conclusions come from a study recently published in the North American scientific journal “Alzheimer’s and Dementia”, which sought to analyze episodes of lucidity in people who are in the final stages of these diseases.
Until now, the theory prevailed among experts that cases of temporary memory reversal occurred only hours or days before the death of patients.
The study authors interviewed 151 informal caregivers, who provided information about “the episodes observed, proximity to death, cognitive status [do doente]the duration, the quality of communication and the circumstances that preceded the episodes of lucidity in up to two episodes”.
Of that sample, around 20% of caregivers mentioned that the corresponding patient had an episode of lucidity seven days before death, while more than a third reported that the patient in question recovered his memory a week to six months before death.
The majority of patients (48%) lived “more than six months after the episode of lucidity”. According to the study, these cases “coincided with visits from family members, more often from children who did not live with the patients and who had less contact with them”.
Participant reports suggest that rare or unusual visits can trigger a period of awareness on the part of a patient. These reactions can also be triggered by other external stimuli such as music.
The researchers warn, however, that the study has some limitations, as the testimonies presented depend on subjective interpretations of the patients’ behavior which, being seen as an episode of lucidity by caregivers, may not constitute one of these cases.
In this sense, the authors call for more studies to be carried out to confirm this type of episodes in a more heterogeneous sample of patients and caregivers.
“A deeper understanding of temporary reversals in cognitive ability may pave the way for inducing some types of lucid episodes and prolonging the duration of others,” they stated.
