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Anterograde Amnesia in 50 First Dates
About 50 First Dates
Directed by Peter Segal and written by George Wing, 50 First Dates is a romantic
comedy released in 2004. The casts include Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider,
and Sean Astin. The story goes around a marine veterinarian and his love interest, a Hawaiian art
teacher afflicted with a mental disorder. Most scenes were shot in Oahu, Hawaii and won the
lead stars Best On-Screen Team at the MTV Movie Awards.
The title is in reference to the forgetful tendencies of the heroine, Lucy. The irony is
apparent—a first time is supposed to happen just once, thus the meaning is basically not literal.
Without seeing the film, one would have difficulty trying to figure out what the movie entails,
and this is but a typical character of most American makes. The number 50 could have just been
selected at random, since any number, save for 1, would deliver the message the writer intends to
convey.
50 First Dates featured quite a lot of humorous circumstances, from the unusual
personality of the supporting characters to the on and off romance between the two lead roles.
Conventional to most films of this genre, a significant predicament brings upon a disparaging
impact that in the end will be dealt with quixotically, and result in a happily ever after picture.
However, what makes 50 First Dates distinctive is the presence of an antagonist called
anterograde amnesia.
Forgetful Lucy and Anterograde Amnesia
Anterograde amnesia is the failure to learn and store experiences encountered after a
trauma. In the story, Lucy had a car accident a year prior to his encounter with Henry Roth that
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resulted in a fictional type of anterograde amnesia called the Goldfield Syndrome. From then on
she lost the ability to remember, and her mindset goes back to the day before the trauma while
she sleeps.
It is proposed that a regular facet of anterograde amnesia is damage to part of an extended
hippocampal system that consist of the hippocampus, the formix, the mammillary bodies, and the
anterior thalamic nuclei (Mayes & Downes, 1997). This instigates deficit in the recall of episodic
information. The film illustrates that Lucy’s head injury impaired a part of her brain, although
details are not explicitly explained. In a review published in the Medical Journal in 2004,
According to clinical neuropsychologist Sallie Baxendale (2004), “it bears no relation to any
known neurological or psychiatric condition”. Some experts, though, claim that the movie’s
depiction of the syndrome may be a little off, yet it does exist.
Although dysfunctions in different brain regions can result in anterograde amnesia, the
contribution of individual structures and their relationships still remains a matter of uncertainty
and debate (Mayes & Downes, 1997). The failure to resolve this central issue is partly due to
lack of amnesic subjects with specific patterns of pathology. It may also be due to the complexity
of the relationships between those regions contributing to amnesia.
A Cure to Remember
Anterograde amnesia “diminishes between ECT treatments and accumulates across
treatments” (Squire & Chace, 1975). It is difficult to identify exactly the point at which new
learning ability reaches normal levels. Patients with anterograde amnesia following bilateral ECT
in a number of studies seem to have recovered by 6 months after treatment and there is no good
evidence that new learning ability is still deficient at this time (Squire & Chace, 1975).
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Presumably, once treatment is completed recovery occurs gradually in a negative accelerated
fashion over a period of many weeks.
In 50 First Dates, the doctor declares that there is no treatment to Lucy’s case. There is
no mention whatsoever of ECT, and the main characters opted to record all their special
experiences in order that Lucy can have a means to stay up to date. Specific clinical syndromes
for which psychiatrists often recommend the use of ECT as a first line of treatment include
psychotic depression, depression with severe psychomotor retardation or stupor, depression with
severe suicidal ideation, catatonia, and severe manic excitement (Fink, 1993). Needless to say,
anterograde amnesia is not in the list.
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References
Baxendale, S. (2004). Memories aren’t made of this: Amnesia at the movies. BMJ 329: 14801483. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1480.
Fink, M. (1993). Post-ECT delirium. The Journal of ECT. Lippincott-Raven Publishers. Volume
9, Issue 4.
Mayes, R. & Downes, J. (1997). Theories of organic amnesia. East Sussex: Psychology Press
Squire, L.R. & Chace, P.M. (1975). Retrograde amnesia: Temporal gradient in very long term
memory following electroconvulsive therapy. Science, 187, 77-79.