Key Takeaways
- Understanding memory loss seniors is important for seniors and their caregivers.
- A person with memory loss needs a lot of support.
- Your provider will perform a physical exam and ask about the person’s medical history and symptoms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Key Takeaways
What Are the Common Causes and Risk Factors?
Home Care
What to Expect at Your Office Visit?
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What Are the Common Causes and Risk Factors?
Understanding memory loss seniors is important for seniors and their caregivers. normal aging can cause some forgetfulness. It is normal to have some trouble learning new material or needing more time to remember it. But normal aging does not lead to dramatic memory loss. Such memory loss is due to other diseases.
Memory loss can be caused by many things. To determine a cause, your health care provider will ask if the problem came on suddenly or slowly.
Many areas of the brain help you create and retrieve memories. A problem in any of these areas can lead to memory loss.
Memory loss may result from a new injury to the brain, which is caused by or is present after:
-
Brain tumor
-
Cancer treatment, such as
brain radiation
,
bone marrow transplant
, or
chemotherapy
-
Concussion
or head trauma
- Not enough oxygen getting to the brain when your heart or breathing is stopped for too long (anoxic brain injury)
-
Severe
brain infection
(encephalitis) or
infection around the brain
(meningitis)
- Major surgery or severe illness, including brain surgery
- Sudden, temporary loss of memory (transient global amnesia) of unclear cause
-
Transient ischemic attack (TIA)
or
stroke
-
Fluid collection in the brain (
hydrocephalus
)
- Multiple sclerosis
-
Dementia
Sometimes, memory loss occurs with mental health problems, such as:
- After a major, traumatic or stressful event
-
Bipolar disorder
-
Depression
or other mental health disorders, such as
schizophrenia
Memory loss may be a sign of dementia. Dementia also affects thinking, language, judgment, and behavior. Common types of dementia associated with memory loss are:
-
Alzheimer disease
- Vascular dementia
- Lewy body dementia
- Fronto-temporal dementia
-
Progressive supranuclear palsy
- Normal pressure hydrocephalus
-
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Other causes of memory loss include:
- Alcohol or use of prescription medicines or illegal drugs
-
Brain infections such as
Lyme disease
,
syphilis
, or HIV/AIDS
-
Overuse of medicines, such as barbiturates, opioids or
hypnotics
-
Electroconvulsive therapy
(ECT) most often causes short-term memory loss
-
Epilepsy
that is not well controlled
-
Illness that results in the loss of, or damage to brain tissue or nerve cells, such as
Parkinson disease
,
Huntington disease
, or
multiple sclerosis
-
Low levels of important nutrients or vitamins, such as low vitamin B1 or
B12
Home Care
A person with memory loss needs a lot of support.
- It helps to show the person familiar objects, music, photos, or play familiar music.
- It is important to write down when the person should take any medicine or do other critical tasks.
- If a person needs help with everyday tasks, or if safety or nutrition is a concern, you may want to consider extended-care facilities, such as an adult family home or nursing home.
What to Expect at Your Office Visit?
Your provider will perform a physical exam and ask about the person’s medical history and symptoms. This will usually include asking questions of family members and friends. For this reason, they may be interviewed in-person or by phone.
Medical history questions may include:
- Type of memory loss, such as short-term or long-term
- Time pattern, such as how long the memory loss has lasted or whether it comes and goes
- Things that triggered memory loss, such as head injury or surgery
Tests that may be done include:
- Blood tests for specific diseases that are suspected (such as low vitamin B12 or thyroid disease)
-
Cerebral angiography
-
Cognitive tests
(neuropsychological or psychometric tests)
-
CT scan
or
MRI of the head
-
Electroencephalogram
(EEG)
-
Lumbar puncture
-
Positron emission tomography
(PET) scan
- Genetic tests
Treatment depends on the cause of memory loss. Your provider can tell you more.
Forgetfulness; Amnesia; Impaired memory; Loss of memory; Amnestic syndrome; Dementia – memory loss; Mild cognitive impairment – memory loss
-
Central nervous system and peripheral nervous system
-
Brain
DeLuca GC, Griggs RC, Johnston SC. Approach to the patient with neurologic disease. In: Goldman L, Cooney KA, eds.
Goldman-Cecil Medicine
. 27th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2024:chap 366.
Kirshner HS, Gifford KA. Intellectual and memory impairments. In: Jankovic J, Mazziotta JC, Pomeroy SL, Newman NJ, eds.
Bradley and Daroff’s Neurology in Clinical Practice
. 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2022:chap 7.
Knopman DS. Cognitive impairment and dementia. In: Goldman L, Cooney KA, eds.
Goldman-Cecil Medicine
. 27th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2024:chap 371.
Updated by: Joseph V. Campellone, MD, Department of Neurology, Cooper Medical School at Rowan University, Camden, NJ. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
-
Memory
About the Author: This article was researched and written by the SilverWell Hub editorial team. It was medically reviewed by Dr. Sarah Mitchell, MD, Geriatrics.
Sources: This article is adapted from MedlinePlus, a service of the National Library of Medicine.
Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only. See our full Medical Disclaimer.
Published: July 21, 2026 | Next review: January 2027
