How can some one lose the memory due to depression?!

How can some one lose the memory due to depression?

Thanks for some great responses! It's so hard to comprehend how my husband who was in control of everything seems like a simpleton right now! He admitted to his first depression being over a lie that his mistress told him regarding her past. He's had this affair for the past 3 years mainly via phone. When I discovered his affair with her 3 months ago I asked for a divorce. He feels that he can't go to her because she hurt him with her lie which can't leave his brain. He can't work or remember how he used to run his small empire. I'm all he has left and I wan't to see him on his feet. He's going to work but calls me all the time crying and wanting to end it all! What do I do? He sleeps 8 hrs a night with nozinan 25 mg and is taking atarax 25 mg and seroplex after his suicide attempt for 1 1/2 months now. I feel so helpless. He is SOOOOO negative about everything and seems to be convinced that its all over for him and his career!

I'm very sorry to hear about the entire situation. As the responses from your other question said, hospitalization is a viable option in this case. It would be nice if he agrees to be admitted to the hospital. He could call any behavioral/psychiatric hospital and set up a same-day evaluation, or he could call 911 and ask for the nearest place to be evaluated.

If he doesn't agree, but he ever verbally threatens suicide, you can call 911 and they will take him to the hospital for an evaluation, and he has no choice in the matter. Based on the information you've given us, his evaluation would result in being admitted to the hospital. I don't know if you're comfortable having him taken there against his will, but if his life is in danger here, that becomes more important than whether or not he wants to be hospitalized.

As for the question in your heading, regarding memory loss in depression, I know one such mechanism. Depressives with a suicide attempt in their history tend to have a secondary anxiety condition as a result of the depression. (Depressives without anxiety often don't have the motivation to follow through on a planned suicide attempt).

Anxiety disorders cause the adrenal gland to overproduce cortisol, which is a useful hormone when you need a boost of energy, but too much of it causes damage to a region of the brain called the hippocampus, where many long-term memories are stored.

[On a PET scan, the hippocampus of a depressed person is smaller than that of someone without a mood disorder, and the amount of shrinking directly correlates with the length of the depression.]

I can't say for certain that an anxiety-induced overproduction of cortisol is the mechanism of memory loss in the particular case of your husband, but I see no reason to rule it out yet either. In the meantime I agree with a neurological consultation regarding the memory issue in case it is something different.

I wish you both the best. Remember to take care of yourself as well.