| Earlier this week a reader commented on a book by | | | | memory. That is to say, whatever is happening |
| Dr. Duane Graveline entitled, Lipitor: Thief of Memory. | | | | around one cannot be put into any context involving |
| I had heard of Dr. Graveline earlier and was intending | | | | one's past and identity. A patient is able to speak, |
| to comment some time in future on his work. I have | | | | but cannot carry out a coherent conversation as |
| not yet read Lipitor Thief of Memory or Dr. | | | | they cannot recall more than the past few moments |
| Graveline's more recent work Statin Drug Side | | | | of words. Often they are described as quite |
| Effects however after reading the comment I | | | | earnestly repeating a question or statement, "as if a |
| realized that I can't always wait until I have become | | | | fragment of a sound track is being repeatedly rerun". |
| perfectly expert in hundreds of topics before | | | | Motor skills are unaffected and even complex |
| deciding that they are worth discussion, really, there | | | | behaviors may be carried out successfully, as one |
| might be one post a season if I did that. I am entirely | | | | patient has been reported to have continued putting |
| confident from what I do know now that this topic is | | | | together the alternator in his car despite the attack. |
| worth further discussion. | | | | The victim also retains a knowledge of self and |
| Dr. Graveline has an eclectic and storied background. | | | | family members yet is disoriented to space and time |
| He is both a former NASA astronaut as well as | | | | and cannot put the events occurring around him or |
| military flight surgeon and retired family practitioner. | | | | her into any coherent context. Fortunately, as the |
| He holds a Doctorate of Medicine as well as a | | | | name implies, the amnesia is transient generally |
| Masters degree in Public Health. Dr Graveline, it | | | | resolving after an average of about six hours. |
| appears, did not start out to become a critic of statin | | | | All went well for Dr. Graveline until one year later, |
| drugs, rather the controversy found him. As he | | | | when he again started on Lipitor, this time at one half |
| describes on his website Spacedoc.net, after an | | | | his previous dose. As Dr. Graveline describes it, |
| annual physical as part of his astronaut program he | | | | "Six weeks later I again descended into the black pit |
| was started on Lipitor for elevated cholesterol. While | | | | of amnesia--this time for twelve hours, and with a |
| there were no immediate reactions, as Dr. Graveline | | | | retrograde loss of memory back to my high school |
| relates, | | | | days. |
| "All was well until six weeks later, when my wife | | | | During that terrible interval, when my entire adult life |
| found me walking aimlessly about the yard after I | | | | had been eradicated, I had no awareness of my |
| returned from my usual walk in the woods. I did not | | | | marriage or my four children; my medical school days |
| recognize her, and only reluctantly accepted cookies | | | | or my ten adventure-filled years as a USAF flight |
| & milk--but refused to go into my now unfamiliar | | | | surgeon; my selection as a NASA scientist-astronaut |
| home. | | | | or my post-retirement decade as a writer of medical |
| I "awoke" six hours later in the office of the | | | | fiction. |
| examining Neurologist with a diagnosis of transient | | | | The names of my books were like the names of my |
| global amnesia, cause unknown." | | | | children - gone from my mind as completely as if |
| A full medical work-up found no obvious cause for | | | | they had never happened. Fortunately (and typically |
| this alarming event and Dr. Graveline over the | | | | for this obscure condition), my memory returned |
| protests of his doctors chose to discontinue his | | | | spontaneously and again I drove home listening to |
| Lipitor treatment. Transient Global Amnesia is | | | | my wife's amazing tale of how the day's events had |
| characterized by an inability to integrate short term | | | | unfolded. |