Category Archives: 醫學萬花筒

醫學萬花筒 之 記憶信不過綜合症

Posted on by
回應

人們普遍相信自己的記憶，但有一些人被別人游說或挑戰記憶的時候，會懷疑自己記憶的準確度。例如某人記得自己的屋子是白色，但是當另一個人或一些人（特別是他信任的人）對他說，他的屋子是紅色。這時候，他會開始接納別人的說話而否決自己的記憶。1982年Gisli Gudjonsson及James MacKeith稱這現象為「記憶信不過綜合症」(Memory distrust syndrome)。

由於對自己的記憶失去信心，往往會倚靠別人的意見生活，不嘗試努力追溯記憶裡的東西。事實上，有這綜合症的人的記憶力並沒有真正問題，不屬於患病（例如腦退化症、腦創傷失憶）的失憶症狀。真正失憶的人很少承認自己出現問題，反而找很多藉口來遮掩缺點，甚至捏造故事來解釋忘記事情的因由。

有分析指，患有這種綜合症的人有兩種特徵。首先，部分人有一種強迫行為，他們擔心自己記不清楚，故不斷重複檢查自己的消息來源及準確性；結果越檢查，越記不起。另外有些人可能缺乏自信心，很容易接受別人的意見，免得犯錯而要自己承擔責任。此外，當他們受到別人嚴苛挑戰的壓力，又會對自己的記憶失去信心。這情況大多在法庭證人作供時出現，律師往往以嚴厲的說話擾亂證人對案發情況的記憶，令其證供無效。

1974年，冰島有兩位年輕男子無故失蹤，懷疑已被人謀殺，但找不到屍體。警方在輿論壓力下，拘捕了六名男士，並長時間拘留及盤問。雖然這些疑犯記憶中沒有傷害死者，但在單獨拘留、長時間審問、缺水、缺睡，又被處方安眠藥及鎮靜劑（過量或會影響記憶）之下，最終簽紙承認謀殺及毁滅屍體。2017年，冰島內政部要求案件交由最高法院重審，結果當中五人被判無罪。

記憶力是人非常重要的大腦功能，失憶可造成嚴重的生活問題。有人認為，有效記憶往事可以發揮重要的宗教及民族影響力，如英國聖經學者A.J. Culp博士(2020, September 22. Center for Hebraic Thought. https://hebraicthought.org)認為，舊約申命記特別強調以色列人要記得出埃及的經歷，使他們能夠在領袖摩西離世之後，仍然保持對上主的忠誠。故此，申命記是藉著故事（第六章）、禮儀（第十六章），甚至詩歌（第三十二章）來強化他們的記憶。

解讀小貼士：

1. 記憶力是因人而異，隨著年齡增長，人會逐漸善忘。故此，盡量不要與他人爭論剛發生而自己記不清的事情。

2. 若記憶力明顯衰退（其他人也能發現），需要作詳細檢查，有些問題可對症下藥。

3. 如果只是老化問題，應該多作腦力運動。目前有藥物可供安全使用，能減少記憶流失。

麥基恩醫生
精神科專科醫生
轉載自：《趣味精神綜合症2》

「醫學萬花筒」 My pain, Doctor

Posted on by
回應

Dr. Luke Tsang
(A family doctor trained in Australia and Hong Kong)

 Most people go to see a doctor with some symptoms(病徵). When we are traveling in an English speaking country, having pains can be a common reason why we need to see a doctor there. The following might help the doctors understand your problem better and to help you quicker.

 ‘Where’ is the pain(痛楚)?
The pain can be in any part of the body. Point to the place that hurt most, better to use 1-2 fingers. If it is involving an area, use your hand to indicate location. If the pain is not only in one place, point to the areas that are involved in sequence.

 ‘When’ : how long have you felt the pain? Has it changed since it first started?

It can be minutes, hours, days or weeks, or even years ! Use a calendar or a time piece or write down the number and show the doctor. The pain can be there all that time or it may come and go. If it wax and wanes, try to think what can bring the pain and what can reduce it. Is it body posture, food, time of day, events or people ?

 ‘How’ : try to describe the sensation; how it has affected you.

Although pain is a common sensation, it actually is quite individualized. Some would feel that it is ‘ sharp’ (刀割似的痛) ( knife like, flash of lightning); or ‘stabbing’ (戳刺似的痛)( the pain goes deeper into the body); ‘bruising’(撞擊似的痛) (like hit by a fist or a blunt object); or ‘sawing’(拉鋸似的痛) (the pain nags, and changes intensity); or ‘pins and needles’ (many small pins and numbing feeling). Another useful way to describe pain is to try to indicate how strong the pain is. If 0 is no pain, and 10 the worst pain imaginable, try use a number between 0-10 to explain your sensation(感覺). Another important point about your pain is to describe how this sensation has affected your life. Has it reduced your sleep? Does it stop you from doing your daily activities (like talking, walking, sitting, up and down stairs, eating, enjoying your life etc) ?

Pain is a subjective/personal sensation. You are the best person to explain to the attending medical doctor how this sensation is troubling you. The more you can describe the pain, the faster the doctor is able to find the reason(s) for your problem. Therefore the quicker you can be relieved from your pain.

「醫學萬花筒」 “Flora in Medicine”

Posted on by
回應

Dear Readers,

Nowadays, even though when a layman can search for information of medical “diseases” (疾病) from the internet, many people actually do not know what to do when they experience bodily “symptoms” (病癥) or “signs” (病狀). They are “anxious” (焦慮) whether they should wait and see, or should “seek medical advice” (求診) ASAP (as soon as possible), or what are the “First Aid” (急救) methods that they can help themselves. This is of particular importance to those who are abroad, either as travelers, overseas students or immigrants. Very often they do not know how to express their “symptoms” in English clearly to the doctors at the “consultation room” (診室) or at the “Accident & Emergency Department” (急症室) of the “General Hospitals” (全科醫院).

It is how this new monthly column in English “Flora in Medicine” 「醫學萬花筒」 begins, with the aim of helping an ordinary person to know how to help themselves when they do experience unexpected physical discomfort. When and where to seek help, and how to express themselves to their physicians (doctors) so as to help them make accurate “diagnosis” (斷症), so as to avoid unnecessary anxiety or “investigations” (檢查). We are very fortunate to have a number of experienced Christian doctors who are willing to help and to provide their expertise in “general medical practice” (通科). Nevertheless, they would remain anonymous so as to avoid unnecessary personal publicity. We will concentrate on management of “symptoms” and signs”, and not on particular diseases. Please note that they would just try to provide general good medical advice, with no intention to treat individual patients, who should if needed seek direct help from their “family doctors” (家庭醫生).

This is also our first attempt to write in English, with Chinese translation of all medical terms as far as possible. We pray that this could help our readers when they travel to other countries, that they can express their bodily discomfort better in the universal English language, or to find good medical advice searching through English webpages.

Please feel free to give us some feedbacks so we can improve this column in the future. May God bless all our writers and our readers!

Editor.
January, 2018