ADHD and Memory Loss

How Memory Is Affected and How to Manage Forgetfulness

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder that can impact how the brain processes memory. People with ADHD might notice they forget daily tasks like appointments, schedules, and bringing lunch, for example. ADHD can also impact both working memory and long-term memory.

Verywell / Lara Antal

This article will discuss how ADHD affects memory, strategies for improving memory, and managing forgetfulness.

About ADHD

ADHD is classified into three subtypes: inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive, and combination.

Inattentive symptoms include trouble focusing, difficulty following through on tasks and instructions, making "careless" mistakes, losing items, and problems with other activities that require sustained mental focus.

Hyperactive/impulsive symptoms include being constantly in motion, physical restlessness, trouble with impulse control, interrupting or blurting out responses, and difficulty waiting for a turn.

The combination type of ADHD has aspects of both inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive. People with this type of ADHD meet the criteria for both other types of ADHD.

What Is Working Memory?

Working memory is the brain's short-term storage space. When information is taken in, working memory holds it for a short time while it processes the information, encoding it into useful data. From there, the information is stored in long-term memory.

Working memory involves:

  • Reordering: Maintaining and rearranging information
  • Updating: Active monitoring of incoming information and replacing outdated information with more relevant ones
  • Dual-processing: Maintaining information in the mind while doing another task

ADHD and Memory Problems

It's estimated that up to 80% to 85% of children with ADHD experience problems with working memory when evaluated with cognitive tasks. Research suggests these difficulties persist into adulthood.

Working Memory

Longitudinal studies suggest that the severity of impairment in working memory correlates with the severity of ADHD symptoms. While not everyone with ADHD has trouble with working memory, impairments in working memory are linked to symptoms such as inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity in people with ADHD.

Difficulty with working memory can influence areas such as academic achievement, organization, emotion processing, and social relationships.

Working memory affects how people process and store information and follow instructions. For example, working memory is at play when remembering items on a grocery list or following multi-step instructions like, "Eat your breakfast, then put your lunch in your backpack, then put on your shoes."

Working memory also affects areas such as reading and math.

Long-Term Memory

Problems with long-term memory are also associated with ADHD. It is believed that the problems people with ADHD experience with long-term memory stem from their difficulties with working memory. While they don't have problems with recalling information, recall is only as useful as how it was stored.

People with ADHD may encode the information in a disorganized way, causing it to be processed in such a way that it is less useful, or does not enter long-term memory.

How Long Is Long-Term Memory?

While long-term memory sounds like it refers to your ability to remember things from years ago, it actually describes memory that has been processed through working memory and stored. This can take just moments. If you finish watching a movie and are asked to name your favorite part, your description would be retrieved from your long-term memory.

ADHD and Other Causes of Memory Loss

Some of the cognitive symptoms associated with ADHD may also resemble symptoms of prodromal dementia, also called mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This is particularly notable for people over age 50.

Despite similarities between the two conditions, they are fundamentally unrelated conditions. A causal relationship has not been established between them. If ADHD causes any increased risk of MCI, it is likely through health-compromising behaviors that are more common in people with ADHD, such as smoking, alcohol, and substance use.

A 2021 study showed that parents and grandparents of individuals with ADHD were at a higher risk of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, but the link is not well understood. More research is needed in this area.

Managing ADHD Forgetfulness

Medication

Stimulant medication has been shown to improve many symptoms of ADHD, and for some, it may help manage working memory and other memory difficulties.

Organization Tools

There are many ways to help you stay on track and remember the details you need to know. These include:

  • Calendars, either physical or digital
  • Setting alarms and reminders for appointments, tasks, and commitments
  • Apps for organization
  • Lists so no step or item gets missed
  • Posted lists of instructions and routines for children
  • Visual reminders such as sticky notes
  • Visualizing the end result, not the individual tasks, such as posting a picture of your child completely ready for school with all the items they need

Games

Memory and sequencing games such as Concentration, matching games, and Simon Says can help strengthen existing memory skills.

Repetition

Repeating and rehearsing information, routines, and other things you or your child need to remember can help it "stick" better. When giving instructions to a child with ADHD, ask them to repeat what you said.

Mnemonics

Mnemonics involves using little "tricks" to link new information being learned to information you already know.

Examples of mnemonics include:

  • Chunking: Organize bigger pieces of info into smaller groups of info, such as how a phone number is formatted as 111-222-3333.
  • Musical: Set the info to a tune you know, or make one up. Think of how jingles work.
  • Acronyms: Use the first letters to create an acronym that prompts you to remember the whole phrase, such as HOMES for the names of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior).
  • Acrostics: This type of poem works by assigning each letter in the concept a word to make up a phrase, such as Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge to remember the sequence of lines in a treble clef, or Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally for the order of operations in math (parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction).
  • Rhyming: Rhyming can help make something easier to remember, such as, "I after E except after C" or "30 days has September, April, June, and November."
  • Connections: Make connections between information. If you need the red and green files, think of them as the "Christmas files." Assign an adjective to people's names, such as Happy Harry.
  • Method of Loci: Picture a path with familiar objects along the way, such as the rooms in a house or landmarks on the way to school or work. Assign information you want to remember to each of those places. When you need to remember that information, mentally "walk" the path, triggering the recall of the information as you go.

How to Improve Your Memory

There does not appear to be a way to reliably improve working memory in a sustained, long-term way. Apps and games exist to improve working memory and "brain training," but the evidence is mixed on their efficacy.

There is more evidence for improvements in a task specifically "worked" by an app but less to support these gains applying to other areas more broadly.

A 2019 study suggests promise for training tasks that target multiple cognitive constructs instead of working memory or attention alone and are administered in person instead of virtually. This approach impacted the trained skills with transferred effects to everyday functioning such as behavior, academics, confidence, cooperation, and self-esteem. More research is needed to explore these findings.

Summary

Memory problems such as forgetfulness and poor working memory are linked to ADHD. People with ADHD may have difficulty encoding and processing information in their working memory, which may lead to problems with long-term memory.

There is no proven way to improve working memory overall, but research is being done into "brain training" apps and games to affect working memory in people with ADHD positively. Tools such as mnemonic devices, calendars, organization apps, and reminders can help people with ADHD remember information, tasks, and events.

Stimulant medication and behavior therapy as part of the overall treatment of ADHD may also help with memory difficulties.

13 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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By Heather Jones
Heather M. Jones is a freelance writer with a strong focus on health, parenting, disability, and feminism.