A group of German investigators headed by Birgitta Metternich is reporting a new method of improving memory disturbances.

Patients with memory complaints, but without objective cognitive impairment, suffer considerably in their daily lives, as they experience frequent lapses of memory and attention leading to embarrassment, anxiety, reported occupational shortcomings and often the fear of dementia. Memory lapses could initially be caused by psychological stress. If the memory lapses are noticed, they can lead to anger and fear.

Ultimately, this leads to heightened stress levels, which in turn increase the risk of memory lapses. This vicious circle capturing the sufferers is best characterized by models of somatoform disorders. The term functional memory disorder (FMD) has been suggested for this patient group.

In this study, the Authors evaluated the effectiveness of a new group therapy program to alleviate the cardinal symptoms of FMD by increasing patients’ memory-related self-efficacy (MSE).

The 13-week intervention aimed at reducing stress levels and everyday memory lapses, as well as reducing memory-related anxiety. In groups of 10 patients the Authors used cognitive restructuring and taught various stress reduction techniques. Forty patients with FMD were randomly assigned to either the experimental (EG) or a wait-list control group (WLC).

Thirty-one patients completed the baseline, post-intervention (3 months) and follow-up (6 months) assessments on the Metamemory in Adulthood Questionnaire (MIA), the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) and the SCL-90-R. ANCOVAs comparing MSE change scores from baseline to postintervention (3 months) and from baseline to follow-up (6 months) showed a significantly larger improvement for the EG at follow-up (Cohen’s d = 0.9), whereas the difference in change scores did not yet become significant at 3 months (although there was a descriptive difference in favor of the EG; d = 0.2).

Paired t tests showed that at 6 months there was a significant improvement in memory self-efficacy within the EG, but not in the WLC. On the SCL-90-R and the PSQ, there were no significant differences in change scores between the groups at any point in time. All analyses were repeated applying the intention-to-treat principle. The overall pattern of results remained stable.

This pilot study showed preliminary results of improving MSE in FMD patients through a new group therapy program. However, future studies with larger groups, comparisons between different treatments and a broader range of measures are required.