Anterograde amnesia belongs to the category of neurological disorders. It is a type of lacunar amnesia. That is, when memory loss affects individual events or time intervals. It is determined by the fact that all new events occurring with the patient are not stored in long-term memory. It is characterized by forgetfulness, an inability to learn new facts, an inability to remember about events that occurred after an injury. However, the ability to learn various skills remains intact.
There are two kinds of reasons why this memory loss develops . The disease can be caused by organic and psychogenic factors. The first can occur due to brain injuries (it can be, for example, a concussion) or due to changes caused by various diseases (cancer, poisoning, alcoholism, various organic brain diseases). One of the causes of anterograde amnesia can be damage to the hypocampus, the fornix of the brain and mastoid bodies. This indicates that it is on this part of the brain that processes associated with long-term memory are tied. Psychogenic factors appear against the background of severe psychological trauma, when a person directly ejects the fact of a traumatic event from memory.
According to statistics, anterograde amnesia is a rather rare type of memory impairment. The likelihood of occurrence is the same in men and women.
Course of the disease
The disease can last from a couple of days to several months. As a separate form, temporary anterograde amnesia is isolated. It can occur while taking sleeping pills or tranquilizers.
The onset of the disease begins with the fact that a person is not able to remember, which means that he will never be able to remember events from which he was distracted for several moments. In this case, the patient retains memories of the events preceding the injury, and he may well talk about them. Events occurring at a given moment in time can only leave a mark in the form of short-term fragments of memories.
Disorders with anterograde amnesia are transient, proceed by fixation type. The patient is not able to remember the current day of the week, how long he has been in the hospital, the name of the attending physician, the fact of meeting with relatives and so on.
Very often, anterograde amnesia occurs in a combined form with partial retrograde amnesia. That is, the memory of some of the events that occurred before the onset of the disease also remains inaccessible. Often this type of amnesia is paired with congrad amnesia. This is a type of memory impairment when memories of events occurring at the time of the injury are disturbed.
The treatment of amnesia of this type occurs according to the treatment regimen for non-progressive types of amnesia. In the first stages, inpatient treatment is indicated. After discharge, the patient should undergo regular examinations until the symptoms disappear completely. The total treatment time can last from several weeks to six months. Anterograde amnesia in treatment requires the participation of a psychiatrist, neurologist and psychologist. It is based on the treatment of the underlying disease, which led to a disruption in the normal functioning of memory processes. Also indicated are drugs that improve cholinergic conduction.
Treatment necessarily includes neuropsychological rehabilitation. It is based on conditionally situational methods. They include solving a variety of tasks, tactical exercises and business games, various trainings. The application of these methods is based on the fact that the patient performs a type of activity whose elements are close in composition and content to real activity. Although, of course, are conditional.