Amnesia, main types (fixation, retrograde, anterograde, total) and others

Amnesia is the loss of memories or the ability to remember information and retrieve it from the “depths of the brain.” Strictly speaking, in 80-90% of cases a person does not forget anything; even what he saw/heard once passes into long-term memory, and is retrieved from it in extreme cases. Memory remains a poorly studied phenomenon of the human psyche. Anterograde amnesia is a violation of the process of remembering and retrieving information after a trauma or as a result of the course of any disorder: the very moment of development of the disease. In this case, the person clearly remembers events that happened earlier, before the violation.

Anterograde amnesia is characterized by the loss of memories acquired after the onset of the pathological process. Which period is covered depends on the case. The duration of the disease varies from several days to weeks. In exceptional cases years.

It is impossible to radically help the patient. The basis of therapy is eliminating the cause of the pathological process. According to statistics, the condition is considered rare, occurring in 2-3% of patients with traumatic brain injury, in approximately 15% of patients with epilepsy or brain cancer (glioblastoma). There are no gender and age differences; they suffer regardless of race or region of residence.

Diagnostics

When determining the state of the brain and the cause of retrograde amnesia, the doctor finds out in detail what preceded the memory loss.
There is often a clear correlation with trauma, a major stressful event, illness, substance use, or other factor. To clarify all the circumstances, a conversation with relatives is important. The nature of memory loss becomes clear during a conversation with the patient. Detailed diagnosis of all memory characteristics is carried out using neuropsychological and pathopsychological examination methods. Typically this is done by a clinical psychologist. Retrograde amnesia in psychology is considered as part of a complex of cognitive changes. Thinking and perception are always explored simultaneously. This approach gives a general idea of the changes and helps make a prognosis for the patient.

Instrumental examination methods make it possible to determine whether there are changes in brain tissue that could affect memory. This will also make it clear whether the memory loss will be permanent.

Dopplerography helps to find out the characteristics of blood circulation in the brain.
An echoEG is prescribed if there is a suspicion of a tumor in the brain, a scar, or tissue thinning. Most often, this method is used if it is not possible to conduct an MRI, or it is necessary to supplement its data.
An EEG establishes the functional activity of the brain by detecting electrical activity. This gives an idea of how active the affected area of the brain is.
MRI provides comprehensive data on the structure and individual anatomical features of the brain, and allows you to determine the thickness of the cortex in areas of interest to the doctor. This gives an idea of the nature of the injury or other damage and helps make a prognosis.

Based on all the examination data, the doctor can prescribe treatment.

Causes of amnesia in young people

You can often hear stories about how a young, healthy man left the house in home clothes and slippers and did not return. What happened, why did the man get lost?

The young man could have been attacked by bandits, asking for a light, or hit on the head with brass knuckles or a stone. After an injury, all memories may disappear from the head. Even minor concussions cause short-term forgetfulness. But soon the memories will be restored and the victim will return home.

After a stroke, people of working age experience:

dizziness;
severe pain in the head;
memory loss;
blurred vision;
sensory disturbance;
partial or complete paralysis;
loss of balance;
the smile becomes asymmetrical;
difficult to speak the language.

From the editor: Foci of glial changes in the brain

After drinking alcohol the night before, it may be impossible to remember what happened after drinking. It is difficult to determine a dangerous dose. It all depends on the person’s well-being, weight, gender and what he ate before drinking. Alcohol, drunk on an empty stomach, is absorbed instantly and has a strong toxic effect.

Recently, more and more often there are people who have lost their memory of who they are, what food and people are, for no apparent reason, between the ages of 17 and 60 years. Once in the hospital, they remain “zombies” for a long time and learn all life skills again.

Scientists suggest that these people are influenced by an external influence. A person without memory can be used as an unpaid worker, an executive killer. Memory may not return to such people at all or after a long time.

Often “zombies” do not remember who they are, but retain their professional skills. This leads scientists to believe that they were used as intellectual slaves. Relatives must look for their loved ones and help them return to normal life.

Impact on culture

Amnesia is often used as a plot device in works of fiction. The vast majority of cases describe retrograde amnesia. As a rule, portrayals of amnesia in films and fiction are unreliable: the hero loses memories of his personality, but retains skills and the ability to communicate.

Rare examples of characters with more or less reliably shown anterograde amnesia are the main character of the film “Memento” and Dory the fish in the cartoons “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory”. The melodrama “50 First Dates” also shows anterograde amnesia, but, according to experts, it is unreliable.

Movies:

Who am I? (1998)
Remember (2000)
Inside My Memory (2003)
Deja Vu (1989)
50 First Dates (2004)
Man Without a Past (2002)
The Bourne Identity (2002)

Anime:

Ergo Proxy (2006)
Ef: A Tale of Memories (2006)
Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (2008)
Golden Time (2010)

Manga:

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Jojolion (2011 - present)

Video games:

Arx Fatalis (2002)
XIII (game) (2003)
Second Sight (2004)
Shadow The Hedgehog (2005)
The Witcher (2007)
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010)
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (2013)

Classification by dynamics

Judging by how long it lasts and at what point the period of forgetting occurs, there are:

Progressive amnesia. Events and memories disappear gradually and sequentially, one after another. The most recent ones are erased first, then the older ones.
The carrier of the disease cannot accurately remember what he did yesterday, last year or in childhood. The chronological map becomes confused, and the person suffering from this disorder loses orientation in time and space. This is often a consequence of mental illness in old age.
A person exists among fragments of ancient and recent circumstances, places, actions, impressions. With such a disorder, only part of reality can be recorded. The cerebral cortex is destroyed, and the disease constantly progresses.

Retarded amnesia. It is also called “delayed” or “delayed”, since forgetting occurs some time after the loss of consciousness, the stage of psychosis, and confusion occurs.

Having come to his senses, the patient can even share his impressions of what he felt, and as time passes, he can completely forget about what happened.

Stationary. Specific events are blocked and cannot be resurrected. Forgetting is persistent, it does not extend to other events or circumstances, no dynamics are observed.

Regressive. A fairly common occurrence under severe stress. Unlike progressive amnesia, this type is characterized by the return of the forgotten. Lost memories can be fully recovered over time. Considered a temporary loss of information. Failures can happen to people of any age.

Consequences

Alcoholic palimpsest appears against the background of systematic intoxication. If a person continues to abuse alcohol, then over time the pathological symptom develops into a disease - amnesia against the background of a formed psychophysical dependence.

Chronic alcoholism leads to toxic damage to all organs and systems (ascites, cirrhosis, peptic ulcer). But the central nervous system suffers first. Systematic poisoning leads to irreversible degenerative processes in brain tissue. Against the background of prolonged abuse, Korsakoff psychosis, dementia or alcoholic encephalopathy develops. Without timely therapeutic correction, the prognosis is unfavorable - disability, death.

Causes

A temporary form of anterograde amnesia can occur for various reasons.

Organic causes

Pathology can develop due to cerebral circulation disorders due to head injuries or traumatic brain injuries or operations.

Memory disorders can also appear in a person who has suffered an infectious disease, after which complications arose.

Psychological reasons

The occurrence of anterograde amnesia is typical after prolonged stress, excessive nervous tension, or severe fright. May develop in people with depression. Occurs with epilepsy, mental retardation. Possible development due to psychosomatic diseases.

Taking medications

Long-term use of certain medications can also cause problems. Amnesia can develop due to the use of tranquilizers and sleeping pills. In addition, drugs, alcoholic beverages, and toxic chemicals pose a danger: their constant use can cause the development of memory disorders.

Prevention

There are no methods of prevention as such. We can give general recommendations:

Minimum stress. It's better to avoid them altogether. If this is not possible, mastering relaxation techniques is indicated.
Timely treatment of all infectious and inflammatory pathologies.
Constant mental load at an adequate level. Helps reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Maintaining immunity.
Avoiding injuries and blows to the head.
Quitting alcohol, smoking, and drugs.

Symptoms

The disease is characterized by the following symptoms:

Forgetting events and information that were received at the beginning (immediately after surgery, a traumatic situation);
a person can remember everything that happened earlier, before the illness, but the subsequent period is lost;
mood swings, increased attempts to remember and reconstruct the chain of events;
headaches;
loss of concentration and confusion;
confusion;
loss of orientation in space;
anxiety states (panic attacks, depressive disorders);
problems with remembering and reproducing basic information (names, numbers, dates, recent events).

A person has difficulty in spatial orientation

He cannot concentrate on anything; it is difficult for him to remember the faces and names of loved ones. Often there is a replacement of real events with fictitious (false) events that never happened

With such symptoms, it is necessary to urgently begin treatment.

The duration of mild pathology is a couple of days or several months. In severe forms, such memory impairment can last for several years.4

Symptoms of Memory Loss

The process of selectively selecting incoming information is a key aspect of intelligence. Memorization makes it possible to think through the past and plan for the future. Typical symptoms when memory loss:

Confabulation.
Confusion.
Difficulty with daily activities, such as leading meetings or preparing meals.
Denial of people, facts and events.
Increased difficulty following directions or taking a step-by-step approach to a familiar task.
Irritability.
Language difficulties.
Neurological disorders (eg, tremors, uncoordinated movements).
Poor performance in tests.
Repeating the same phrases.

Psychogenic and its types

Conditions when it is not possible to remember some part of the data relating to one’s own personality are called psychogenic amnesia. Their varieties:

Catathymic amnesia. A person susceptible to this disorder forgets only those events, names, personalities, details that are unpleasant to him, which he encountered during psychological trauma. Can be diagnosed with psychogenic disorders. All events that coincide in time with the traumatic situation are also forgotten.
Hysterical. Unlike catathymic, it allows the brain to retain memories of events that coincide in time with the traumatic ones, and only the immediate critical moment is forgotten. Refers to hysterical psychopathic syndrome.

Post-hypnotic. It is the only consciously induced memory loss. A person forgets events and actions that happened to him while he was under hypnosis. This is part of post-hypnotic suggestion.

Dissociative amnesia. The patient erases from his body personal information associated with severe stress, while retaining all other memories.

This is a kind of protective mechanism that allows the body to protect the psyche from destruction. The difference from the previous ones is that often the victim does not need treatment, and the process of forgetting itself is the treatment, that is, the brain protects its owner from unnecessary stress.

Dissociative fugue. This is also a certain protective mechanism, but it manifests itself in a different way. When placed in a devastating stressful situation, the subject literally wants to escape from it. This manifests itself in the form of a mental disorder, which is accompanied by an unexpected move and a complete inability to remember everything that concerns one’s own personality. Some time after the fugue, the patient remembers himself, but does not remember the events of this period.

The disease is extremely rare; its descriptions are found in both medical and fiction literature.

Types of amnesia

Retrograde amnesia
- the patient does not remember events that occurred before the onset of amnesia.
Anterograde amnesia
- the patient loses the ability to remember events that occur after the onset of the disease (provoked, for example, by trauma or stress). At the same time, he can remember everything that happened before.
Anterograde amnesia
is a combination of anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia. The patient may suffer from both retrograde and anterograde amnesia due to damage to the middle temporal zones and especially the hippocampus.
Fixation amnesia
is a memory impairment for current (more than a few minutes) events. A component of Korsakoff's syndrome.
Congrade amnesia
is complete or partial amnesia, which is limited only to events during the acute period of the disease. Occurs in oneiric syndrome, some forms of delirium, coma, stupor, stupor.
Korsakoff's syndrome
is a severe fixation, anterograde and retrograde amnesia due to a lack of vitamin B1 in the brain, combined with other symptoms. The cause is most often alcoholism, although other causes, such as severe malnutrition, can lead to the same syndrome.
Dissociated amnesia
- amnesia, in which facts from personal life are forgotten, but memory for universal knowledge is retained. Dissociated amnesia is usually the result of mental trauma.
Selective amnesia
- the patient forgets some of the events that occurred during a limited period of time, but retains memory for universal knowledge. As a rule, such cases are associated with mental trauma received as a result of these events.
Generalized (global) amnesia
- the patient forgets everything that happened in a limited period of time and some events that happened before that.
Continuous amnesia
- the patient stops remembering new events, and also forgets some of the old ones. This is extremely rare with dissociative amnesia.
Dissociative fugue
is a more severe disease than dissociative amnesia. Patients with dissociative fugue suddenly leave for another place and there completely forget their biography and personal data, even their name. Sometimes they take on a new name and a new job. The dissociative fugue lasts from several hours to several months, occasionally longer, after which patients just as suddenly remember their past. At the same time, they can forget everything that happened during the fugue.
Childhood amnesia
is the inability to remember events in infancy and early childhood, common to all people. The reasons are probably the underdevelopment of the corresponding areas of the brain.
Post-hypnotic amnesia
is the inability to remember what happened during hypnosis.
Catathymic amnesia
- the patient forgets only certain persons and events that are associated with special experiences.
Progressive amnesia
is amnesia that spreads from later to earlier events.
Retarded amnesia
is “delayed” amnesia, when events that took place do not disappear immediately, but only some time after the illness.
Stationary amnesia
is a persistent memory loss that does not change over time.

Quantitative memory impairment

Quantitative memory impairments include:

Amnesia
Hypermnesia,
Hypomnesia.

Amnesia

Amnesia is a loss of memory for various information, skills, or for a particular period of time.

Fixation amnesia

With fixation amnesia, there is a loss of the ability to remember and reproduce new information. Memory for current, recent events is sharply weakened or absent, while it is retained for knowledge acquired in the past. Orientation in the environment, time, surrounding persons, in the situation is impaired - amnestic disorientation.

Fixation amnesia is the most important symptom of Korsakov's syndrome, observed in Korsakov's psychosis, traumatic brain injury, atherosclerotic and other organic psychoses, intoxications (for example, carbon monoxide), atrophic processes (senile dementia, Alzheimer's disease).

In fixation amnesia, the disturbance concerns the mechanisms of short-term, and possibly immediate memory.

Progressive amnesia

Due to progressive amnesia (gradually increasing and far-reaching depletion of memory), memory reserves are lost in a certain sequence, obeying the Ribot-Jackson law:

from the particular to the more general,
from what was later acquired, less firmly fixed and less automated - to what was acquired earlier, more firmly fixed, more organized and automated;
from less emotionally intense to more emotionally significant.

The traces of motor and emotional memory that last the longest are motor skills (habitual actions, gait, gestures), the nature of affective reactions to certain situations.

There are several stages in the development of progressive amnesia .

At the first stage, there is a sharp decrease in memory for current events - fixation amnesia. Memory for the past can be satisfactory or even slightly increased (sometimes the revival of memory for past events reaches the level of hypermnesia).

At the second stage of amnesia, memory gaps for events preceding the onset of the disease are added, and then more and more distant ones - retrograde amnesia.

At the third stage, scattered and very scarce memories are preserved, relating mainly to childhood. All types of orientation are disrupted. Memories of the distant past can be experienced as happening in the present moment - ecmnesia.

Ecmnesia , first identified by Pitre (1882), represents vivid memories of past events that took place before those undergoing amnesia.

With progressive amnesia, all types of memory (short-term, intermediate, long-term) suffer.

Progressive amnesia is observed during atrophic processes, progressive paralysis, and other grossly organic lesions.

Retrograde amnesia

Retrograde amnesia is a loss of memory for events that preceded a state of altered consciousness, gross organic brain damage, hypoxia (for example, self-hanging), and the development of acute psychotic syndrome.

Amnesia can spread over periods of time of varying duration - from several minutes, hours, days to a number of months and even years. The memory gap can be persistent, stationary, but in many cases the memories partially or completely return later. In the latter case, we are obviously talking about violations of the reproductive function of memory. Memory restoration, if it occurs, usually begins with the appearance of memories of more distant events and progresses towards more and more recent ones.

Less often, the sequence of recovery of memory traces may be different.

Anterograde amnesia

Anterograde amnesia is the loss of memories of events immediately following the end of unconsciousness or other obvious mental disorder.

Amnesia can spread over significant periods of time, reaching several days, months, possibly years.

Identification of anterograde amnesia sometimes encounters great difficulties; it is often mixed with fixation and congrade amnesia.

The development of anterograde amnesia is based on the blocking of mechanisms that ensure the transfer of information from “short” and intermediate forms of memory into long-term memory.

Anterograde amnesia can be combined with retrograde amnesia, as can be seen in the mentioned observation - anterograde amnesia .

Congrade amnesia

Congrade amnesia is characterized by loss of memory about events in the environment and about one’s own well-being for a period of impaired consciousness.

Amnesia can be complete or total, which is typical for twilight stupefaction, amentia, and severe stupor.

Partial or fragmentary amnesia usually accompanies delirious, oneiric clouding of consciousness, and mild stupor. Loss of memory is detected immediately upon exiting the painful state or occurs after some time - delayed or retarded amnesia.

Congrade amnesia can be combined with retrograde and anterograde amnesia. The mechanisms of its development are probably associated with various reasons, including a violation of the verbalization of external and internal impressions, as a result of which they are not included in the verbal-logical structures of consciousness.

Alcohol amnesia

With alcoholic amnesia, there is a loss of memory for events associated with the intoxication of alcoholic patients.

There are cases when people suffering from alcoholism forget about the impressions of the period of intoxication, being sober, but when they become intoxicated again they can remember them again - the phenomenon of discontinuous memory by D. Goodwin. The phenomenon of D. Goodwin's discontinuous memory resembles the state of alternating consciousness and thereby suggests its hysterical origin.

Motivated amnesia

Motivated amnesia is a loss of memory for individual traumatic events.

Gaps arise through repression mechanisms. In a state of hypnotic sleep, after overcoming resistance, lost memories can be restored. It is observed in persons with hysterical character traits and neuroses. Repression of traumatic memories is an extremely common phenomenon among healthy individuals; is considered as one of the psychological defense mechanisms.

Affectogenic amnesia

Affectogenic amnesia is the loss of memories of events that occurred during a violent emotional reaction - affect.

Identified upon exiting a state of pathological affect, it is caused by a narrowing of consciousness. In fact, it is a variant of congrade amnesia. It obviously should not be considered catathymic, that is, associated with the action by the mechanism of repression.

Post-hypnotic amnesia

Post-hypnotic amnesia occurs after awakening from deep hypnotic sleep and essentially occurs due to a disturbance of consciousness. Amnesia can be instilled in a state of shallow hypnotic trance.

Periodic amnesia

Periodic amnesia accompanies the states of double or alternating consciousness described by Ribot, in which in one painful state of consciousness there are no memories of what was experienced in another. Upon returning to a normal state, the patient does not remember what happened in both the first and second pathological states, or only vaguely remembers individual impressions.

Scotomization of memory

Scotomization of memory is close to motivated amnesia. It differs from the latter in that it occurs in individuals who do not display hysterical character traits.

When does amnesia occur?

Amnesia is observed in cases of disturbance of consciousness (coma, stupor, stupor, delirium, twilight, amental stupefaction, psychogenic disorders of consciousness, states of pathological affect and pathological intoxication), intoxication, uremia, alcoholic encephalopathy, atrophic processes (Pick's disease, Alzheimer's disease, senile dementia), vascular diseases of the brain, after traumatic brain injury, electroconvulsive seizures, in the clinical picture of epileptic disorders.

Loss of specialized types of memory (for faces, colors, smells, symbols, skills) is systematized (systemic) amnesia . This type of amnesia includes disorders such as aphasia, agnosia, and apraxia.

Aphasia

Motor (expressive) aphasia is characterized by difficulties in verbally expressing thoughts. Free written speech suffers, while when copying it is better preserved. In more severe cases of motor aphasia, dictation writing is impaired.

Sensory aphasia is manifested by a lack of understanding of oral and written speech, since phonemic hearing is impaired. Reading and writing are impaired.

Amnestic aphasia is manifested by forgetting the necessary words, for example, the names of objects. Instead, patients show or describe the purpose and properties of objects, the actions that are performed with them. Verbosity is combined with verbal paraphasias and perseverations. The letter (when copied) is not broken.

Semantic aphasia is characterized by a lack of understanding of complex phrases due to an inability to identify grammatical forms that express relationships between concepts.

Agnosia

Agnosia is a violation of object recognition.

With optical agnosia, objects are not recognized, possibly due to the loss of adequate programs of exploratory actions (palpating eye movements). Vision and color perception are not affected. Impaired recognition may concern symbols (letters, numbers), drawings, and geometric shapes.

Agnosia regarding one's own body is defined as somatoagnosia , which is expressed in the failure to recognize parts of one's body.

Somatoagnosia in neurological patients is manifested by denial of the fact of paralysis. Thus, with Anton-Babinsky anosognosia syndrome, the patient is not aware of left-sided paralysis and exhibits “blindness to his own blindness” (the lesion is in the right hemisphere).

Imaginary sensation of additional parts of the body (extra arm, head, etc.) - paresthetic polypseudomelia V.M. Bekhterev and P.A. Ostankova - described with damage to the cortex of the subdominant hemisphere.

Prosopagnosia is the failure to recognize the faces of familiar people in photographs.

With apraxia , there is a loss of motor skills (actions with objects, gestures, expressive acts, the ability to imitate the actions of others and perform movements at requests from outside).

With motor apraxia, the patient forgets the nature of the actions required to complete a task.

With ideator apraxia , the plan, the sequence of actions that must be performed to achieve a goal, suffers.

Constructive apraxia manifests itself in the fact that the patient cannot recreate the desired integral structure from individual elements or parts (make a figure, ornament, etc.).

The phenomena of aphasia, agnosia, apraxia and other disorders of cortical functions (alexia, acalculia, etc.) are observed with local damage to cortical structures (vascular processes, tumors, etc.). In psychiatric practice, they are found in atrophic processes (Pick's disease, Alzheimer's disease, senile dementia, traumatic lesions).

Hypomnesia

, like amnesia and hypermnesia, is a type of quantitative memory impairment.

Hypomnesia , or weakening of memory, most often manifests itself in the form of dysmnesia - uneven damage to various memory functions, primarily retention and reproduction.

One of the early signs of dysmnesia is a violation of selective reproduction in the form of the inability to remember any fact necessary at the moment, although later this fact emerges in memory on its own. A sign of a relatively mild weakening of memory is also forgetting that the patient has previously reported a fact to this person. The oncoming weakening of memory is more noticeable in relation to mechanical memory than to verbal-logical memory. First of all, the memorization and reproduction of reference material is impaired - dates, names, numbers, titles, terms, persons, etc. Fresh and less fixed impressions are also forgotten more quickly. Time orientation deteriorates, chronological memory suffers, and the sense of time is disrupted.

Hypomnesia may manifest as anekphoria.

Anekphoria is a memory disorder in which the ability to remember a well-known fact without being reminded is lost. With more severe hypomnesia, many details and significant events relating to personal and social life are lost from memory.

Hypermnesia

But hypermnesia - a pathological exacerbation of memory - is manifested by an excessive abundance of memories, which are of a vivid sensory-figurative nature, emerge with extraordinary ease and cover both the event as a whole and its smallest details.

Reproduction of the logical sequence of facts is impaired, mainly mechanical and figurative types of memory are strengthened. Events are grouped into series that reflect their connection by contiguity, similarity and contrast.

Hypermnesia is heterogeneous; a number of its variants can be distinguished depending on the clinical context in which it is observed (affective pathology, hallucinatory-delusional states, states of confused consciousness).

Hypermnesia occurs in hypomanic and manic states, in the initial stages of intoxication (alcohol, hashish, etc.), in the prodrome of an expansive form of progressive paralysis, in schizophrenia, and in a state of hypnotic sleep. Hypermnesia can occur with depression - the most insignificant episodes of the past are clearly remembered, consonant with low self-esteem and ideas of self-blame. Hypermnesia can be partial, selective.

Reasons for appearance

Anterograde (anterograde) amnesia in most cases occurs in patients with neurological disorders and severe mental disorders (epilepsy, schizophrenia, mental retardation). The disease can occur as a result of traumatic brain injuries, bruises and head wounds. Other causes of antegrade amnesia:

Drug treatment;
severe injury;
brain changes;
epilepsy;
infections;
sports (injury is easy to get in boxing, hockey or football);
severe stress;
poisoning.
psychosomatic diseases;
intoxication of the body due to chemical poisoning, prolonged use of alcohol or drugs;
disruptions of neuroendocrine regulation;
degenerative changes in the brain in old age;
acute stress and severe depression;

Also, people after 40 can get amnesia. Information gets “stuck” between short-term and long-term memory. It happens that it simply collapses. The brain does not perceive the influence of external factors.

Read on topic:

Memory exercises for older people

How can you help with amnesia?

Speaking about the treatment of amnesia, it is important to emphasize that if symptoms of memory impairment are detected, it is necessary to seek help from specialists as quickly as possible. The result of therapy will depend on the cause of amnesia, the timeliness of contacting a doctor and the correctness of the selected treatment. Therapy for amnesia should be comprehensive and include: treatment with medications, neuropsychological rehabilitation and psychotherapy. With natural age-related degenerative changes in the brain, complete restoration of memory, unfortunately, is impossible, but a significant slowdown in further memory decline and the process of social maladaptation is more than realistic. It’s just very important to ask for help not too late!

Give yourself and your loved ones many more happy years of life with the opportunity to capture in your memory all the most pleasant and joyful moments!

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What is anterograde amnesia?

Antegrade amnesia is a violation of memorization and storage of received information, in which the patient forgets events that occurred after an illness or traumatic brain injury.

Disturbance in the movement of information from cells of short-term storage to sections of long-term storage causes amnesia of an anterograde nature. Due to the problem of establishing new interneuron connections, memorization is blocked. Previously acquired knowledge is retained. The victim remembers everything that preceded the painful condition, but new connections between nerve cells are not formed.

The result of the condition is the patient’s confusion due to the inability to adequately interact with others and correctly respond to current events.

Prevention and prognosis

In most cases, memory is restored. The exception is severe brain damage, in which it is impossible to eliminate the cause that caused amnesia. In Alzheimer's disease, senile dementia, and inoperable progressive tumors, the prognosis for memory recovery is unfavorable.

Prevention of retrograde amnesia for the most part consists of maintaining a healthy lifestyle that prevents the development of provoking diseases. It is important to protect your head from injury, avoid exposure to toxic substances, and follow safety rules.

Proper nutrition with limited animal fats, giving up bad habits, walks in the fresh air, and vigorous exercise are universal recommendations for health in general and for the prevention of memory problems in particular.

For good brain function over many years, it is important, even in old age, to continue learning something new, reading books, playing intellectual games. A mentally and physically active person tolerates stress more easily. Consequently, mental activity and movement reduce the likelihood of both organic and psychological causes of amnesia.

Pathogenesis

Memory is formed in 2 main stages, which correspond to 2 types of memory:

Short-term, which stores information for from fractions of seconds to several tens of minutes. It is formed due to temporary patterns of neural connections that emanate from the areas of the frontal and parietal cortex, and is destroyed under the influence of factors that can influence the coordinated work of neurons (anesthesia, electric shock, etc.).
Long-term, which stores information throughout a person’s life. This type of memory is resistant to factors that impair short-term memory.

The transformation of short-term memory into long-term memory (consolidation) is associated with the gradual activation of a number of biochemical processes.

The basis for the process of consolidation of a memory trace is the functional changes that occur at the level of the neuron genome (increased synthesis of individual specific neuropeptides of synaptic membranes, etc.). Reliable consolidation of a memory trace takes from an hour to several days.

It has been experimentally established that information about each event is distributed over fairly large areas of the brain. The material carriers of this information are neural networks - combinations of simultaneously excited neurons.

Each new response is produced and remembered by the nervous system using new synaptic connections that arise between existing neurons, or by changing the effectiveness of existing synaptic connections.

Long-term memorization is based on the fact that when some neurons are excited, the ability of other neurons to be excited changes.

The occurrence of retrograde amnesia is associated with the mechanism of short-term memory, which looks like reverberation of excitation. This excitation amplifies itself according to the principle of positive feedback using “neural traps” and is transmitted along closed neural circuits.

In case of injury, poisoning and the use of electric shock, the reverberating excitation circuits are interrupted before the consolidation of memory traces, so the events that occurred before the damage are not imprinted in long-term memory.

When amnesia regresses, the period covered by it is shortened, and events are recalled according to their natural temporal sequence.

Reasons for development

Retrograde amnesia occurs when:

Traumatic brain injuries that cause concussion and loss of consciousness followed by loss of memory of events that occurred before the injury. Retrograde amnesia can be caused by trauma of any severity (the duration of amnesia is a characteristic indicator of the severity of a traumatic brain injury, since the milder the injury, the faster the patient’s memory returns). In most cases, with severe trauma, amnesia covers hours or weeks before the injury, and in mild cases, it covers seconds or minutes, but in any case, memory for more distant events is most often retained.
Acute infectious diseases. In herpetic encephalitis, damage to the hippocampus occurs as a result of the spread of the herpes simplex virus along the olfactory tract.
Encephalopathies. The mechanisms of brain damage in encephalopathies have not been fully established, but it is known that retrograde amnesia is often caused by Wernicke encephalopathy, which occurs due to a lack of vitamins B, as well as residual, discirculatory and vascular encephalopathy.
Poisoning with carbon monoxide, clonidine, etc.
Disturbances in the blood supply to the brain, since the hippocampus, which is involved in the process of memory consolidation, is characterized by increased sensitivity to hypoxia and ischemia.
Strangulation. Develops due to hypoxia.
The presence of tumor formations of various origins.
Electrical injuries accompanied by respiratory arrest.
Epilepsy. Amnesia affects the period of epileptic seizures.
Acute psychosis. It develops in the form of Korsakoff syndrome, which is not associated with the intake of alcohol and other psychoactive substances.
Emotional shock. Under the influence of a stressful stimulus, patients develop dissociative amnesia, which is usually retrograde in nature.
Some mental illnesses (hysterical personality disorder, etc.).

Retrograde amnesia is included in Korsakoff's syndrome, which develops when:

alcoholism;
vitamin deficiency (vitamin B1 deficiency);
malignant formations;
AIDS;
degenerative dementias;
Pick's disease;
Alzheimer's disease, etc.

Causes

The development factors are not precisely known. Since memory remains poorly studied (the substrate of memory and the psyche in general—the brain—has been studied to some extent), it is impossible to say exactly why anterograde disorder occurs. Doctors deal with empirical data. It is assumed that the basis of the disease is chaotic functioning of the hippocampus. This is one of the most ancient structures of the human brain. It is responsible for spatial orientation and long-term memory, mnestic processes. According to observations, pathology develops as a result of a group of conditions.

A brain tumor

Most often in the chiasmal-sellar region. Bases of the brain. When the tumor is large, it begins to put pressure on the hippocampus. Compression leads first to short-term deviations, and then to total ones. This effect is observed with a certain orientation of the tumor, growing backward, towards the trunk. Tumors are not always malignant. There are a minority of them in this location. Craniopharyngiomas, meningiomas of the tubercle of the sella turcica, pituitary adenomas with atypical distribution or ectopia (displacement relative to the normal position), germinomas, astrocytomas and other low-grade gliomas.

Brain injury

Bruises, skull fractures, concussions and others. In case of massive damage to cerebral structures, acute anterograde amnesia occurs. The patient remembers well what happened to him before the injury, but the moment itself and the events after it do not. Failures are possible. Every day or every few days. In the course of pathology, it is assumed that the transition of short-term memory to long-term memory stops. There may be a complete absence of the normal process of memorization. This is not a constant phenomenon, it is episodic, but an episode can last for years. Why is this happening? As a result of the injury, the functional activity of the hippocampus disappears. This is the result of direct damage, compression by a hematoma, which can be difficult to see with a superficial examination. Survey MRI.

Stroke

Acute malnutrition of the brain with subsequent death of cerebral tissue. The death of neurons leads to temporary anterograde amnesia. This is a response to tissue destruction. Temporary. Lasts about 1-3 months, the entire early rehabilitation period. A stroke does not always provoke pathology. Only with destruction of the parietal, temporal lobes or ischemia/hemorrhage of the trunk does anterograde amnesia develop.

Encephalitis or meningitis

Infectious inflammatory processes. They occur relatively rarely, and even less often they lead to anterograde amnesia. It is possible to link the onset of the disorder with inflammation only after analyzing the work of all higher activity. Reflexes are taken into account, the safety of mnestic and cognitive functions is checked. Infections of cerebral structures rarely have isolated consequences. Damage to the hippocampus occurs extremely rarely. Typically, entire clusters of neurons are involved, the so-called lobes of the brain, each of which has its own functions.

On the topic: Encephalitis - inflammation of the brain of various etiologies

Alzheimer's disease

Disease of older age. It is partly genetic and partly metabolic in origin. Initial signs are faintly noticeable. Anterograde amnesia refers to optional (not obligatory) signs of mental illness. At the same time, patients are in such a deplorable state all the time. You can only help by slowing down the pathological process. Many experts consider memory impairment to be a late sign of the disease. It indicates extensive tissue damage and a poor prognosis in the short term.

Vascular dementia

The symptoms are similar to Alzheimer's disease, but have a clear cause-and-effect relationship with weakened blood circulation in the brain. Moreover, after correction of the underlying condition, the diagnosis that led to the disorder, everything returns to normal. The long course of the disorder worsens the overall prognosis.

Epilepsy

The most common neurological disorder. Anterograde amnesia is especially characteristic of him. The reason is precisely the decrease in the efficiency of the hippocampus. According to research, sclerosis (reduction and scarring) of the hippocampus is considered a pathognomonic sign of the disease. Seizures and convulsions are a consequence of additional dysfunction of the temporal lobes.

Mental retardation

Congenital weakening of cognitive and mnestic functions as a result of underdevelopment of certain lobes of cerebral structures. Cannot be treated. However, anterograde amnesia is a phenomenon observed in 3-5% of patients. Usually only the cerebral cortex is affected. With the development of such a syndrome, a deviation in the formation of the hippocampus is detected. The same effect is observed in Down syndrome.

Postponed surgeries

Lead to traumatic brain damage. The failures are short-lived. Lasts no more than 1-2 weeks. Until the swelling subsides, the syndrome is likely. Risks can be reduced by prescribing diuretics to the patient. If the cortex itself or the base of the brain is damaged, there is a possibility that the pathology will persist for many years, if not for life. However, the likelihood of such consequences is insignificant.

The list of reasons is incomplete. Failures often develop in patients with alcoholism as part of delirium tremens (delirium tremens), drug addiction with persistent physiological dependence, and less often the condition is included in the structure of withdrawal syndrome (withdrawal).

Diagnostics using instrumental methods puts an end to the issue of origin.

Psychogenic amnesia

They do not have an organic basis and arise as a result of the action of protective mechanisms.

Post-hypnotic amnesia.

Hysterical amnesia - the development of the concept of hysterical amnesia is associated with the names of Jean-Martin Charcot, Pierre Janet, Joseph Breuer and Sigmund Freud. It is necessary to distinguish between hysteria of traumatic origin (caused by mental trauma or experiences of extreme stress) and hysteria as a transference neurosis associated, according to early psychoanalytic concepts, with internal structural conflict and regression of libido to objects of the oedipal phase of development. Hysterical amnesia of a traumatic nature is caused by the action of the protective mechanism of dissociation. Amnesia in hysterical transference neurosis is caused by the action of repression aimed at representatives and derivatives of the conflict drive.

According to the concept of Charcot and Breuer, when experiencing a traumatic situation, some people experience a so-called hypnoid state - a state of self-hypnosis. In this altered state of consciousness, the encoding of memory elements corresponding to the experience of a given situation occurs. In some cases, these memories, which form an independent structure that does not have associative connections with the rest of the system of autobiographical memories, cannot be reproduced arbitrarily. Access to them is possible only in an altered state of consciousness, which is achieved using hypnotic and trance techniques.

Amnesia caused by the action of repression can be overcome, according to psychoanalytic concepts, through awareness of the repressed material. The latter is achieved through the use of the method of free associations in analytical work.

Fugue amnesia is amnesia of a dissociative nature. This type of psychogenic amnesia occurs during dissociative fugue - a reaction of flight in a situation of mental trauma or extreme stress. The main feature of a dissociative fugue is sudden, unplanned departure. The dynamics of a dissociative fugue are characterized by passing through the double barrier of amnesia. The first amnestic barrier occurs immediately after the onset of the fugue, with important personal information and memories related to the individual's past life remaining behind the barrier. The first amnestic barrier corresponds to a change in the individual’s personal identity. The second amnestic barrier occurs after the cessation of the fugue state, when memories remaining behind the first amnestic barrier return and memories of events that occurred during the fugue state are dissociated. When passing the second amnestic barrier, the “fugue” personal identity is lost and the individual’s previous identity returns.

Multiple personality disorder is a dissociative disorder whose main etiological factor is chronic childhood trauma in the context of a relationship with a significant adult (usually parents or surrogates). Multiple personality disorder (or DSM-IV dissociative identity disorder) is sometimes misdiagnosed as schizophrenia. Multiple personality disorder is characterized by multiple episodes of amnesia both for a number of traumatic situations in childhood and for events that occurred during the so-called switches, that is, when one alter personality ceded control over the individual’s behavior to another alter personality. As with dissociative fugue, amnesia in multiple personality disorder is usually dissociative in nature. Dissociative amnesia in the vast majority of cases (if, for example, they are not accompanied by disturbances in the functioning of the corresponding parts of the brain) is reversible. Recovery of dissociated material is usually complete and occurs either spontaneously or through the use of hypnotic and trance techniques.

Treatment

Anterograde amnesia is treated on an outpatient basis. The patient needs careful supervision, proper care for the entire period of the disease, and then rehabilitation after restoration of the original state. Treatment of anterograde amnesia as such does not make sense. Because there are no reliable recovery methods. The point is to eliminate the underlying pathological process that caused the disorder.

Brain tumors must be completely removed. Radiation and chemotherapy are prescribed in adequate doses as needed. Benign neoplasms can only be eliminated surgically.
Epilepsy requires long-term use of drugs of the same name to reduce the frequency of attacks or transfer the disease into complete remission. Episodes of anterograde amnesia in this category of patients can be repeated several times throughout life. A reliable method of prevention is to prevent exacerbations of the disease.
Alzheimer's disease cannot be cured at all. Therefore the process is irreversible. You need to constantly care for the patient and try to provide him with comfortable conditions.
Trauma requires control of the patient's condition. If necessary, surgery, elimination of the hematoma using surgical methods.
The same goes for stroke. Constant monitoring, use of diuretics, angioprotectors, cerebrovascular drugs, control of hypertension with ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, calcium antagonists and others. The use of antiplatelet agents is mandatory to prevent the formation of blood clots.
Encephalitis or meningitis is treated with antibacterial drugs.
Vascular dementia is eliminated through the use of cerebrovascular drugs, medications to normalize the rheological properties of the blood. Statinov.

Depending on the main diagnosis, one or another specialist is involved. Anterograde amnesia is an interdisciplinary problem. It requires the efforts of many doctors.

Treatment of amnesia

For amnesia, treatment is nonspecific and depends on the cause. Therapy focuses on strategies to help compensate for memory problems. The following approaches are used:

Treatment of primary pathology: tumor removal, elimination of infection, etc.
Creation of a favorable environment, normalization of work and rest regimes. After this, the first signs of improvement are visible. For patients with degenerative processes in the brain, this helps them adapt better and increase their ability to self-care.
Drug therapy. Nootropic drugs, nicotinic acid derivatives, B vitamins, antipsychotics, vasoactive drugs and other drugs may be prescribed.
Psychotherapy: necessary in the treatment of psychogenic amnesia. Allows you to recognize and work through problems associated with amnestic episodes. Work is carried out with relatives, hypnosuggestive therapy can be used.

Anyone can face risk factors for developing amnesia. Therefore, do not forget about simple preventive measures that will reduce the chance of a painful condition:

Avoiding excessive alcohol consumption.
Wearing a seat belt in a car and wearing a helmet when riding motorcycles and bicycles.
Timely treatment of mental and infectious diseases.
Seek immediate medical help if symptoms of an acute disorder of the cardiovascular, nervous or respiratory system occur. These symptoms include a sharp headache, increased blood pressure, numbness, partial paralysis and more.
Seeing a psychotherapist in stressful situations.
Good habits: regular medical examination, moderate physical activity, balanced diet.

In case of amnesia, only a qualified specialist will tell you what to do - due to the variety of clinical situations, an individual approach to each case is required. If you notice lapses or memory deterioration, do not ignore the problem: the sooner help is provided, the higher the likelihood of its return. But even if this function cannot be restored, modern medicine successfully helps patients stop the progression of the disease, adapt to the new condition and return to social life.

Varieties depending on the current

The classification of amnesia depends on which part of the memory was erased and on what conditions preceded it:

Retrograde. The patient does not remember the events that immediately preceded the injury. For example, an hour, a day, a week before a stressful situation. But other memories remain.
A sign of retrograde disease is that the person susceptible to it does not immediately begin to navigate where he is, what happened to him, where he was shortly before, with whom, and where he was going.
Unlike other types of disorders, with this disorder the patient can recover memories simply by asking questions and remembering the stories of others, and sometimes information can be restored after a hypnosis session. Medicines are used. But doctors do not promise a full recovery effect.
Anterograde amnesia - this type differs from the retrograde amnesia described above in that the patient, on the contrary, stops remembering the events that happened after the traumatic situation. He remembers everything that happened before the key event that led to his loss from reality, but does not remember what happens after, he behaves as usual, but after some time he is not able to recall in his head everything that he did and said.
Congrade amnesia. This is an incomplete loss of memories. For this type of disease to occur, unlike the other two types, it is necessary to be in a coma, unconscious or in a stopper. Congrade forgetting refers to the inability to receive and remember information in such borderline states.
Transient global. The rarest of all varieties. Unlike all other variations, it is considered a temporary disorder, manifested by attacks of varying duration (usually no more than a day). Diagnosed most often in older people. Most often it is a consequence of vascular and oncological cerebral pathologies. Sometimes indicates a brain tumor.

Anteroretrograde. Occurs when functions in the brain fail due to damage to certain areas. As a result, a person becomes the owner of chaotic, abrupt memories that have lost logic and structure. This is a combination of anterograde and retrograde amnesia.

Doctors associate this disorder with the inability to control the process of transferring information from short-term memory to long-term memory.

But the information that is stored in the head before the traumatic event remains untouched. This is a rare species, it entails psychological abnormalities and is quite rarely cured completely.

Memory loss after alcohol

It is believed that even at the first stage of alcohol dependence, amnesia may occur. Sudden amnesia due to excessive alcoholic libation becomes stressful for the individual. However, not everyone experiences memory loss after drinking alcoholic liquids. For temporary amnesia to occur, it is necessary to “comply” with the following conditions: the number of drinks consumed, the degree of alcohol, the simultaneous consumption of a variety of alcoholic beverages, drinking alcohol on an empty stomach, the combination of alcoholic beverages with medications.

From the editor: Exercises and techniques for developing auditory memory

How severely the connections between brain cells are damaged when drinking alcohol-containing liquids depends on the amount of ethyl alcohol that enters the body. It is believed that small doses of alcohol do not lead to loss of memories. However, the influence of alcoholic drinks on people is quite individual: firstly, the very concept of a small dose is different for different people, and secondly, the gender of the drinker, his age and general health are of great importance.

There is also a pattern: the higher the degree of alcoholic drink, the greater the likelihood that the drinking individual will have memory lapses.

The simultaneous consumption of different drinks containing different alcohols sharply increases the likelihood of amnesia.

Drinking on an empty stomach promotes instant absorption of liquid in the body, as a result of which almost all of the ethanol immediately enters the blood, which leads to rapid intoxication, which has the most destructive effect.

When drinking alcohol while undergoing drug treatment or combining the use of alcohol-containing liquids with drugs or smoking, the likelihood of amnesia increases several times.

Of the three types of memory, alcohol can only affect short-term memory; in other words, an individual’s memories “fall out” of a period of time.

Memory loss during alcohol intoxication occurs after palimpsest. A characteristic sign of the described condition is considered to be minor memory lapses, that is, the subject cannot remember some minor details or episodes of what happened during alcohol intoxication.

Memory loss in young people due to alcoholism occurs due to the occurrence of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This syndrome is observed when an individual’s body is exposed to prolonged intoxication in the absence of adequate nutrition and a lack of vitamins B and C.

Diagnostics

It is advisable to begin the examination with a consultation with a neurologist, psychiatrist and psychologist. To exclude drug, alcohol or drug addiction, the patient must be examined by a narcologist. A thorough clinical examination and detailed anamnestic data allows us to obtain an opinion on the presumptive diagnosis.

Additional methods will help to visualize the pathological focus and determine the state of the vascular system and the bioelectrical activity of brain structures.

To clarify the diagnosis, specialists prescribe:

magnetic resonance or computed tomography;
electroencephalography;
angiography using a radiopaque contrast agent;
cerebrospinal fluid examination;
biochemical blood tests to determine sugar and lipid levels, liver and kidney function;
urine tests to determine the presence of toxic substances in the body.

To diagnose amnesia in order to determine the cause of the pathological condition, a full range of examinations is necessary.

Treatment approaches

Treatment of retrograde amnesia involves eliminating the causes and signs of the underlying pathology. For this purpose, various medications can be used:

drugs that improve cerebral circulation: Curantil, Actovegin, Cerebrolysin, etc.;
nootropics (Phenotropil, Piracetam) and neuroprotectors – Glycine and Ginkgo Biloba;
antioxidant medications – Tocopherol, Dihydroquercetin, etc.;
B vitamins.

Any medications are prescribed to the patient after his examination and identification of existing indications and contraindications for use. If you are intolerant to certain drugs, you should avoid them and choose analogues.

In cases where the patient has organic lesions of internal organs, a consultation is scheduled with an appropriate specialist who selects therapy. For example, in case of hypertension, which is a risk factor for stroke, an examination by a cardiologist is indicated and antihypertensive drugs are prescribed (Enalapril, Equator, etc.). For brain tumors that lead to compression of its structures and memory impairment, the main method of treatment is surgery. Depending on the location of the formation, different types of operations are used.

Severe memory impairment, as well as the presence of concomitant mental disorders, is an indication for psychotherapy and social rehabilitation.

Why do memory lapses happen?

The causes of memory and attention impairment in adults and children may be different. If a child with congenital mental retardation immediately has problems with learning, then he will come to adulthood with these disorders. Children and adults can react differently to the environment: the child’s psyche is more delicate, so it endures stress more difficult. In addition, adults have long learned what a child is still trying to master.

As sad as it may be, the trend towards the use of alcoholic beverages and drugs by teenagers, and even young children left without parental supervision, has become frightening: cases of poisoning are not so rarely recorded in reports from law enforcement agencies and medical institutions. But for a child’s brain, alcohol is a powerful poison that has an extremely negative effect on memory.

True, some pathological conditions that are often the cause of absent-mindedness and poor memory in adults are usually excluded in children (Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, osteochondrosis).

Causes of memory impairment in children

Thus, the causes of memory and attention impairment in children can be considered:

Lack of vitamins, anemia;
Asthenia;
Frequent viral infections;
Traumatic brain injuries;
Stressful situations (dysfunctional family, despotism of parents, problems in the team that the child attends);
Poor eyesight;
Brain tumors;
Mental disorder;
Poisoning, alcohol and drug use;
Congenital pathology in which mental retardation is programmed (Down syndrome, etc.) or other (any) conditions (lack of vitamins or microelements, use of certain medications, changes in metabolic processes for the worse), contributing to the formation of attention deficit disorder, which, As you know, it does not improve memory.

Causes of problems in adults

In adults, the reason for poor memory, absent-mindedness and inability to concentrate for a long time are various diseases acquired during life:

Stress, psycho-emotional stress, chronic fatigue of both soul and body;
Acute and chronic cerebrovascular accidents;
Atherosclerosis;
Arterial hypertension;
Encephalopathy;
Osteochondrosis of the cervical spine;
Vertebro-basilar insufficiency;
Traumatic brain injuries;
Metabolic disorders;
Hormonal imbalance;
GM tumors;
Alzheimer's disease;
Mental disorders (depression, epilepsy, schizophrenia and many others).

Of course, anemia of various origins, lack of microelements, vegetative-vascular dystonia, diabetes mellitus and other numerous somatic pathologies lead to impaired memory and attention, and contribute to the appearance of forgetfulness and absent-mindedness.

What types of memory disorders are there? Among them are dysmnesia (hypermnesia, hypomnesia, amnesia) - changes in memory itself, and paramnesia - distortion of memories, to which the patient’s personal fantasies are added. By the way, others around them, on the contrary, consider some of them to be a phenomenal memory rather than a violation of it. True, experts may have a slightly different opinion on this matter.

Symptoms, clinical picture

The main symptom of the pathology is the inability to remember what happened after the onset of the disorder. Episodes of total forgetfulness occur every day or a little less often. Normal memory returns to the patient only after retrograde amnesia ends. In this case, the patient cannot remember the period from the onset of the anterograde disorder to his own recovery. There remains a gap that cannot be restored. The information is not remembered. It is destroyed, so it cannot be removed even by hypnotic methods.

Other manifestations are divided into current and delayed. Current ones arise during the course of the disease itself:

weakness, lethargy;
apathy, unwillingness to do anything;
absent-mindedness, while short-term (allows you to retain information for 20-30 seconds) memory works normally, a person can remember a phone number, address, name, but at the time of the next “round” of anterograde amnesia, he forgets everything he knew before;
decrease in emotional background.

Additionally, you need to pay attention to other manifestations that can indicate the underlying diagnosis. This may include seizures, fainting, sensory organ dysfunction, and severe headaches.

The so-called phenomenon of emotional memory is interesting. If the patient is given unpleasant news or upsets him in any way, the emotional reaction will be pronounced. The affect will remain at the same level even after forgetting the reason for the decrease in mood. This effect is also observed in healthy people. The main difference is that people without anterograde amnesia are able to remember the reason for the negative reaction.

Delayed symptoms are less informative:

confusion - a person cannot understand what happened to him over a certain period of time;
weakness, depression - due to impaired production of neurotransmitters (serotonin and dopamine);
inadequate emotional reactions to weak or absent stimuli (tears for no reason, laughter, etc.).

Anterograde amnesia can cause reactive psychosis. This is the response of a healthy psyche to a traumatic situation. These include memory disorders. Treatment of the condition is carried out in a psychiatric hospital under the supervision of a specialist. Before starting treatment, you should make sure that the symptoms are not part of the clinical picture of epilepsy.

Clinical manifestations

The main symptom of retrograde amnesia is the loss of memory of an event that preceded the loss of consciousness as a result of injury or other illness. In addition, the patient may have other clinical manifestations associated with the underlying diseases: movement disorders, mania, seizures, etc.

With a concussion, the pathology is characterized by the disappearance of memory of events that preceded the injury. At the same time, the patient maintains adequacy, enters into verbal contact with the doctor, and spatial-temporal orientation is also preserved. If amnesia is severe, then speech and orientation are impaired.

Korsakov's syndrome is a special variant of amnesia that occurs in patients after alcoholic delirium and other intoxications. With this type of disorder, lost memories are replaced with false ones (confabulations). Confabulations are related to the main event, however, they contain information about other people, place and time. With repeated cases of intoxication, the severity of disturbances in Korsakov's syndrome increases.

With retrograde memory impairment, the patient retains correct ideas about the distant past and general knowledge about the world, surrounding people, etc. As a rule, such a condition covers a period of time from several seconds to a couple of minutes. The person continues to clearly remember all the events before and after the lost memories.

With the progression of brain diseases (tumors of the central nervous system, vascular disorders, etc.), clinical manifestations worsen. Memory lapses begin to cover large time fragments, and the patient begins to forget information related to specific skills and knowledge. In such a case, memory, attention and other cognitive abilities may be impaired.

The occurrence of pathology

The causes of retrograde amnesia are associated with mental diseases and organic brain lesions. Memory disorders are detected after stroke, traumatic brain injury and encephalitis. About a third of all cases of acute pathology are associated with intoxication of the body due to alcoholism, since the breakdown products of ethyl alcohol have a pronounced toxic effect on the structures of the central nervous system. The chronic version of retrograde amnesia is associated with slowly progressive brain diseases: tumors, atherosclerosis of the carotid arteries, epilepsy and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Pick's, etc.

A specific type of disorder is the occurrence of retrograde amnesia after anesthesia. Almost every person who has undergone general anesthesia has encountered a similar situation. The patient ceases to remember the last few minutes preceding the drug-induced “sleep”. This condition is not classified as a pathology, but is explained as a consequence of the administration of drugs that provide anesthesia.

Memory disorders can be hysterical in nature. In this case, in middle-aged women, against the background of psychological arousal, a loss of memories of the events preceding the hysteria occurs. Similar conditions are observed in patients with mental illnesses accompanied by mania or major depression.