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Amnesia
Amnesia
Classification and external resources ICD-10 F04, R41.3 [1] ICD-9 MeSH 294.0 [2] , 780.9 [5] [3] , 780.93 [4]
D000647
Amnesia (from Greek ) is a condition in which memory is disturbed or lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Functional causes are psychological factors, such as mental disorder, post-traumatic stress or, in psychoanalytic terms, defense mechanisms. Amnesia may also appear as spontaneous episodes, in the case of transient global amnesia.[6]
Forms of amnesia
Anterograde amnesia, is the loss of short-term memory, the loss or impairment of the ability to form new memories through memorization. Persons may find themselves constantly forgetting information, people or events after a few seconds or minutes, because the data does not transfer successfully from their conscious short-term memory into permanent long-term memory. Retrograde amnesia, the loss of pre-existing memories to conscious recollection, beyond an ordinary degree of forgetfulness. The person may be able to memorize new things that occur after the onset of amnesia (unlike in anterograde amnesia), but is unable to recall some or all of their life or identity prior to the onset. However, there are different types of memory, for example procedural memory (i.e. automated skills) and declarative memory (personal episodes or abstract facts), and often only one type is impaired. For example, a person may forget the details of personal identity, but still retain a learned skill such as the ability to play the piano. In addition, the terms are used to categorize patterns of symptoms rather than to indicate a particular cause (etiology). Both categories of amnesia can occur together in the same patient, and commonly result from drug effects or damage to the brain regions most closely associated with episodic memory: the medial temporal lobes and especially the hippocampus. An example of mixed retrograde and anterograde amnesia may be a motorcyclist unable to recall driving his motorbike prior to his head injury (retrograde amnesia), nor can he recall the hospital ward where he is told he had conversations with family over the next two days (anterograde amnesia). The effects of amnesia can last long after the condition has passed. Some sufferers claim that their amnesia changes from a neurological condition to also being a psychological condition, whereby they lose confidence and faith in their own memory and accounts of past events. Another effect of some forms of amnesia may be impaired ability to imagine future events. A 2006 study showed that future experiences imagined by amnesiacs with bilaterally damaged hippocampus lacked spatial coherence, and the authors speculated that the hippocampus may bind different elements of experience together in the process of re-experiencing the past or imagining the future.[7]
Amnesia
Korsakoff's syndrome can result from long-term alcoholism or malnutrition. It is caused by brain damage due to a vitamin B1 deficiency and will be progressive if alcohol intake and nutrition pattern are not modified. Other neurological problems are likely to be present in combination with this type of Amnesia. Korsakoff's syndrome is also known to be connected with confabulation. Drug-induced amnesia is intentionally caused by injection of an amnesiac drug to help a patient forget surgery or medical procedures, particularly those not performed under full anesthesia, or likely to be particularly
Amnesia traumatic. Such drugs are also referred to as "premedicants." Most commonly a 2'-halogenated benzodiazepine such as midazolam or flunitrazepam is the drug of choice, although other strongly amnestic drugs such as propofol or scopolamine may also be used for this application. Memories of the short time frame in which the procedure was performed are permanently lost or at least substantially reduced, but once the drug wears off, memory is no longer affected. Electroconvulsive therapy in which seizures are electrically induced in patients for therapeutic effect can have acute effects including both retrograde and anterograde amnesia. Prosopamnesia is the inability to remember faces, even in the presence of intact facial recognition capabilities. Both acquired and inborn cases have been documented. Situation-Specific amnesia can arise in a variety of circumstances (e.g., committing an offence, child sexual abuse) resulting in PTSD. It has been claimed that it involves a narrowing of consciousness with attention focused on central perceptual details and/or that the emotional or traumatic events are processed differently from ordinary memories.
References
Notes
[1] http:/ / apps. who. int/ classifications/ apps/ icd/ icd10online/ ?gr40. htm+ r413 [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] http:/ / www. icd9data. com/ getICD9Code. ashx?icd9=294. 0 http:/ / www. icd9data. com/ getICD9Code. ashx?icd9=780. 9 http:/ / www. icd9data. com/ getICD9Code. ashx?icd9=780. 93 http:/ / www. nlm. nih. gov/ cgi/ mesh/ 2011/ MB_cgi?field=uid& term=D000647 eMedicine - Transient Global Amnesia : Article by Roy Sucholeiki (http:/ / www. emedicine. com/ neuro/ topic380. htm) Patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences (http:/ / www. pnas. org/ cgi/ content/ abstract/ 0610561104v1), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [8] The Merck Manuals Online (http:/ / www. merck. com/ mrkshared/ mmanual/ section15/ chapter188/ 188c. jsp)
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