Retrograde amnesia

Amnesia is a memory disorder (remembering, saving or reproducing). It can act as a separate disease or be combined with other neuropsychiatric disorders (aphasia, agnosia, apraxia).

The hippocampus, part of the limbic system of the brain, is functionally connected with memory and serves as a repository of fresh information. If it is damaged, the blood supply gets worse, and, consequently, the lack of oxygen, it stops functioning normally. So there is retrograde amnesia. It is transient, as a consequence of epilepsy, migraine, and may progress, and this already indicates the presence of serious diseases, such as a brain tumor.

The main types of amnesia: island, lacunar (anterograde and retrograde) and total or retro-anterogradnaya amnesia (combines the signs of the first two subspecies and has a progressive nature). Anterograde amnesia is characterized by an exception from the memory of events that occurred immediately after the onset of the disease that caused memory impairment.

Retrograde amnesia extends to the events of the recent past that occurred immediately before the disease, and the events of the days that have been long past are remembered quite easily. With this form of memory loss, the information is postponed, but not reproduced. Consequently, the playback function suffers.

Memory disorders are a characteristic symptom of brain damage in cases of craniocerebral trauma, stroke (subarachnoid hemorrhage), acute intoxication (with carbon monoxide poisoning), as well as chronic organic brain diseases (atherosclerosis, atrophic brain diseases, tumors). Retrograde amnesia follows any comatose conditions, after epileptic seizures, when withdrawn from anesthesia after surgery. Another reason is the lack of vitamins, in particular B vitamins, or their poor digestibility in the body.

The human psyche has a protective reaction. It can block the memories of those events that lead to thoughts of suicide, depression or psychosis. For the body itself, if memory is blocked, well, but not for humans. This state is very painful. The patient wants to remember everything, but can not.

With retrograde amnesia, a person sometimes does not remember how his name is, does not recognize any of his relatives, can not remember what happened to him. At the same time, his behavior looks quite normal. A person is sufficiently functional, if the occupation does not require the use of memory. One of the bright characteristic symptoms is false memories or fiction. The patient tries to fill the gaps in the memory with imagination. At the same time, he can not distinguish actual events from fictitious events. And it is impossible to convince him. Very often such phenomena occur in people with alcoholism, and with age-related dementia.

Retrograde amnesia can last from a few months to several years. A great role in recovery is played by the patient's desire to remember everything. Exit from the state of amnesia is quite unpleasant for a person, but then the joy of the memory returning is taking over, and he is recovering.

Retrograde amnesia is difficult to treat. Some therapeutic effect has methods of neuropsychological rehabilitation. From medication prescribed drugs that improve metabolic processes and blood circulation in the brain (nootropic drugs). With retrograde amnesia, treatment is sometimes helped by a psychoanalyst. Do not interfere with regular sessions of hypnosis. Only then does normal memory return to some patients.