Studies have consistently found that patients with
multiple sclerosis (MS) are impaired on tests of anterograde
memory, but the status of remote memory in MS remains unclear.
To better understand remote memory in MS we administered
the Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) to 44 MS patients
and 19 normal controls matched for age, education, and
gender. Additionally, a shortened version of the Famous
Faces Test, a test of recall of past U.S. presidents, and
a 14-word learning list were administered. Patients performed
significantly lower than controls on the learning list
and Famous Faces Test, but not on recall of past presidents.
On the AMI, patients were significantly impaired on recall
of semantic but not of episodic memories. These results
indicate that MS patients exhibit retrograde amnesia that
cannot be attributed to anterograde memory deficits or
lack of exposure to task-relevant information. (JINS,
1997, 3, 246–251.)