I'm sorry I can not recall anything along those lines at this time.
Hm. No joke really. I too have RA and have noted a small amount of recall issues. Actually it is greater than that now days, but then my RA has been flaring for a while causing a lack of sleep.
Though I can not find anything that directly links the disease with memory loss, I do know that pain, stress and lack of sleep directly effect memory and brain functions.
Now that would be the direction you would want to search. Pain and stress (A chronic illness like RA is constant stress) do lead to poor recall, along with other things like insomnia which also degrade the ability of one to recall clearly or small things like one use too. Also the medication you are taking could be taking its toll. The human mind needs clarity and rest in order to perform at peak efficiency, even so much as a loss of one hour of sleep a night over an extended period of time will reduce the efficiency of the mind and how it works. I will assume that you have had a few uncomfortable nights if not some nights where sleep is far from you as the discomfort, ache, pain nags at you. Even when the pain is minimal, so much as turning over at night could cause a bit of pain causing you to wake up, maybe not enough to where you remember waking up, but waking up enough to break the deep sleep process - in effect losing sleep.
There was a recent study (seemingly unrelated I know) which pointed out that suffers of a snoring bed partner tend to come in under their peak efficiency since their sleep is compromised when their partner snores. The study was done with and without the snorer in the room, the nights without the snoring meant that the non-snorer was able to perform better the next day. Even though the sufferer of second hand snoring did not remember waking up, the study showed that the sleep patters were disturbed and looked like waking on the machines.
If we consider that RA will cause constant pain and reduce the amount of deep sleep we get, even if we wake up briefly, we can see that the long term effects will greatly reduce our mental abilities.
It may be something to talk about more fully with your doctor(s). Today there are new sleep medication which do not leave you feeling wicked hung over in the morning, this may be an alternative for you.
As far as I can remember rheumatic diseases (more than just arthritis) can and do affect the brain and other organs. Your best bet is to talk to your Doctor on the matter. Though I did find this on rheumatic diseases:
http://www.niams.nih.gov/hi/topics/arthritis/artrheu.htm if you carefully read through it you will find that there are several rheumatic diseases discussed and it notes that there are 100 diseases of Rheumatic type. RA is part of these 100 diseases, so it would depend on what particular form of the disease you have been diagnaosed and if it is known to effect other organs.
David
