Most often, Korsakov’s syndrome occurs with severe intoxications, infectious diseases, deficiency of B vitamins, brain tumors, after head injuries, with hypoxia, and cerebrovascular accident.
The main symptoms of the syndrome are pronounced memory disorders. Patients almost instantly forget the essence of the conversation, do not remember who talked with them, so they can greet the same people many times. They ask the same questions, cannot answer what they were doing, for several weeks they read the same book page, forgetting what they read immediately.
Korsakovsky syndrome causes a sharp deterioration in verbal memory, emotional and verbal memory also suffer. At the same time, the events of a past life, sometimes very distant in time frames, are remembered by patients very clearly. Of the other disorders, there is a disorientation of orientation in time, and the patient, often, cannot name the time of year, day of the week, and date. At
the development of more severe disorders, there is a loss of orientation even in
familiar surroundings.
The Russian psychiatrist Korsakov discovered this disease. The syndrome is also expressed in the appearance of false memories, which are of two types. In the first case, current events are replaced by real events that occurred in the past. The patient believes that they have literally just happened. This type of false memory is called pseudo-reminiscence. The second type of false memories is expressed in the fact that the patient, when questioned about the latest life events, reports fictional facts and stories, including fantastic ones. Such memories are called confabulations. Some patients experience false recognition of strangers.
Korsakov’s syndrome in any form of manifestation is expressed in intellectual insufficiency, monotony and stereotype of judgments, decreased productivity, inability to notice the differences between reality and false memories.
Patients can remain inactive for long hours, their level of volitional activity and motivation decreases. Most often, the Korsakov syndrome is observed in elderly people and patients with alcoholism. In senile age, orientation disorders in space and immediate surroundings are most common. Gaps in memory are replaced by events of the distant past. There may be cases of a transient course in patients who are diagnosed with Korsakov's syndrome. The treatment is mainly symptomatic and depends on the underlying disease. Patients are recommended drugs that stimulate brain metabolism (vitamins, nootropins). In the case of the development of the syndrome against the background of a lack of vitamin B1, intramuscular injections of this vitamin are prescribed. Good results come from a high-protein, low-carb diet. In most cases, the forecasts are unfavorable - most often persistent mental disorders occur, the possibility of social adaptation is sharply reduced . Only occasionally in some cases, a complete recovery is possible without the manifestation of visible intellectual disorders. The syndrome is often accompanied by polyneuropathy, which is a simultaneous lesion of the peripheral nerves. In this case, the sensitivity of the lower extremities is disturbed, paresis may occur. In the event of a syndrome due to chronic alcohol intoxication, the main condition for treatment is a complete rejection of the use of alcoholic beverages. Since this condition is quite difficult to fulfill, such patients are prescribed specialized therapy.