Authors:

Kime, S., Lamb, D.G. & Wilson, B.A.

Reference:

Year of publication:

1996

CBU number:

3400

Abstract:

This case study describes rehabilitation efforts for a 24 year old woman who exhibited dense amnesia secondary to status epilepticus following a motor vehicle accident. She was 20 months post-injury upon entry to our day treatment programme. The functional severity of her amnesia was reflected in numerous ways, including no recall of what she wore from day to day and an inability to find the toilet after 2 weeks in the programme. A multi-disciplinary comprehensive programme of external cueing was established to exploit her preserved procedural memory. Objective measures of functional compliance were gathered over time and contrasted with both standard europsychological test scores and early levels of functioning in rehabilitation. Results demonstrated enhanced functioning via utilisation of procedural memory. In addition, the patient actually demonstrated increased independent generalisation of strategies and techniques over time. Practical treatment implications are reviewed and discussed.