What is Amnesia?

In simple words, amnesia is losing one’s memory. It may be caused by organic reasons such as brain damage because of injury or by using certain medications like sedative drugs. Amnesia can also be caused by degenerative brain ailments like Alzheimer’s disease. In some people, amnesia may occur due to functional causes such as psychological factors like defense mechanisms. Though amnesia is popular in books and movies, in real life it occurs very rarely.

Types of Amnesia

Read on to learn about a few common types of amnesia:

Anterograde Amnesia

The patient is not able to remember recent events because their short-term memory is impacted. The common reason is damaging injury to the head which causes brain trauma. But, the patient can remember events that occurred before their injury.

Retrograde Amnesia

This is exactly opposite to anterograde amnesia as the patient can remember events after their injury but not those that occurred before it.

Transient Global Amnesia

In this type, the patient loses all memory for a temporary period. They are also unable to form new memories like in anterograde amnesia. This condition actually is very rare. It occurs mostly in seniors and is normally caused when blood vessels are affected due to some reason.

Traumatic Amnesia

This type is more common among sportspersons as they sometimes suffer hard blows to their head. In serious cases, the patient may lose consciousness or lapse into coma. In most cases, the patient recovers quickly as the aberration is temporary. The duration of the amnesia depends on the severity of injury. Traumatic amnesia often indicates concussion in athletes.

Wernike-Korsakoff’s Psychosis

This is an avoidable type of amnesia as it caused mainly by chronic alcohol abuse and malnutrition specifically thiamine deficiency. This ailment worsens with time. The patients may suffer from poor coordination and lose the sense of touch in their fingers and toes.

Hysterical (fugue) Amnesia

This amnesia occurs very rarely and makes the patients forget their identity. They are unable to recognize themselves in the mirror and even identification cards cannot restore their memory. It happens because the patient’s mind is not able to cope with some event. Mostly, the patient recovers on their own as their memory slowly floods back.

Childhood Amnesia

The person is unable to recall events that occurred in early childhood. It happens due to problems in language development. Another reason is because the patient’s brain may not have matured fully during their childhood.

Posthypnotic Amnesia

The patient is unable to recall events during the period when they were under hypnosis.

Source Amnesia

The person remembers the relevant information, but cannot recall the source of that information.

Blackout Phenomenon

This is caused by binge drinking and the person cannot recall events during his period of intense intoxication.

Prosopamnesia

The person is not able to recall faces. The person may be born with this disorder or may acquire it later in life.

Amnesia Symptoms

• The patient may have false memories which may be invented in their mind.
• Uncoordinated movements and tremors
• Disorientation or confusion
• Short-term memory may be impacted
• Partial or total memory loss
• Inability to remember faces or recognize places

Causes of Organic Amnesia

• Any injury or disease that impacts the brain
• Stroke
• Brain inflammation caused by encephalitis
• Celiac disease can cause personality changes, confusion and amnesia.
• Oxygen deprivation which affects oxygen flow to the brain
• Medications like ambien, which is a sleeping drug.
• Brain tumors that affect the part that controls memory
• Certain seizure disorders

Causes of Functional Amnesia

This is caused by psychological issues due to events such as:

• Becoming a victim of violence
• Child abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Combat-related stress in soldiers
• Becoming a victim of natural disaster or terrorist act
• Any event that cause severe mental stress and conflict

Amnesia Treatments

In most cases, the amnesia is temporary and disappears on its own. However, if the amnesia is due to a mental or physical disorder, it needs to be treated appropriately. Psychotherapy and hypnosis can be useful to some patients. The patient needs the help of his family and friends to recover. They can help the amnesia patient by surrounding him with familiar music, smells, photographs and other objects. Memory aids can be used by the patient to deal with their memory loss and function as normally as possible.

Amnesia Complications

Even mild amnesia can cause social, academic and professional problems. In severe cases, the lost memories never come back. In rare cases, the patient may need supervision and care facility.

Related posts:

1. Home Remedies for Amnesia
2. How To Cure Amnesia And Improve Your Memory
3. Symptoms & Causes Of Alzheimers
4. Pseudoseizures
5. How To Boost Your Memory With Simple Lifestyle Changes…
6. Dissociative Fugue
7. Psychogenic Seizures
8. Gingko: Herb to Boost Your Memory
9. A Whiff of Scented Air Can Boost Your Memory Power
10. Tetraplegia