Yes, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) can affect your memory.
One of the symptoms we see many of our patients experience is memory loss.
One of my patients explains it this way: “Sometimes, things will pop into your head and then leave just as readily. Therefore, I have learned to spit it out the second I think of it. Sometimes my family will be discussing something completely unrelated to shopping, and I’d say “Apples! We need Apples!” She calls it CRPS Tourette’s.
Studies have shown that patients who suffer from CRPS show clear changes to the brain. These changes included atrophy (or shrinking) of the gray matter (outside of the brain) and connectivity in the white matter (inside of the brain). The areas affected results in changes to the intensity and duration of pain, two things that CRPS patients can scantly afford. The changes in the brains and Central Nervous Systems of CRPS patients may affect them in other ways, too. Severe neuropathic chronic pain has been shown to be associated with poor performance on neuropsychological tests that assess working memory, language and executive function.
While the above list is not all- inclusive, it covers many of the other symptoms that CRPS may suffer from. Keep in mind that an abnormal Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) may affect all kinds of other systems in the body. Whatever you suffer from, always try to trace it back to the Central Nervous System, thinking about your symptoms in a logical way, instead of just allowing your doctor to treat the symptom with a drug.
Start your patient journey with the Spero Clinic's neurologic rehabilitation program.