What is Amnesia?
Amnesia is a disease of memory loss which include memories of past experiences and events.
Types of Amnesia
1.Retrograde amnesia
This is a type of amnesia when one is not able to make new memories, and this can be caused by too much alcohol and having experienced blackout that may damage hippocampus part if the brain.
2.Childhood amnesia or Infantile amnesia.
This is the one cannot remember anything about them when they were at the age of three to five years.
3.Post Traumatic Amnesia
This is a type of amnesia that occur after a long time of unconsciousness whereby when one wakes up they behave unusual ana can’t remember anything like an hour ago. This should for an hour and the longer trauma takes indicates the level if brain damage.
4.Dissociative amnesia
This is a type of amnesia where a person finds it difficult to remember very important information about the like their age, name, family or personal history and this may be caused by stressful events like being involved in a crime.
5.Drug induced amnesia
This is a type of amnesia which occur when one takes specific drugs that rubs off the memory which is just temporary memory loss. The drugs may be;
- General anesthesia medications like the Phenobarbital and Nembutal Sodium.
- Benzodiazepines like the librium chordiazepoxide and Xanax the an alprazolam
- Date rape drugs like Ketamine
- Sedatives like Imovate a Zopiclon.
6.Transient global amnesia
This is a type of amnesia where one experiences agitation or confusion which occurs repeatedly coming and going. One may also not have lasting memory and experiences memory loss an hour before the attack, and this is common in old adults.
Causes of amnesia
- Lack of enough oxygen level in the brain for the proper functioning termed as anoxia but if it’s not servers it will be temporary.
- Damage of the hippocampus which might be caused some toxins, and this leads to inability to creating new memories.
- Widespread of brain deterioration which can be caused by Alzheimer disease or dementia that makes one to lose recent memories but keep opd memories.
- Head injury that comes with trauma, tumors, stroke and even infections lead to brain damage and this is the major cause of permanent memory loss and memory problems.
- Prolonged trauma or stress caused dissociative amnesia, and this makes the mind to keep rejecting information, thoughts or even feelings and dissociative fugue type of amnesia can lead to unexpected wandering.
- Too much and long-term consumption of alcohol leads to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome which damages the brain causing memory less progressively due to luck of thiamine. While short term consumption leads to blackout that’s causes temporary memory lose
Risk factors
- Stoke
- Brain surgery or injury
- Emotional stress
- Episodes of migraine attack
- High blood pressure or high cholesterol level
Treatment of amnesia
- Some types of amnesia are incurable but there are drugs that can be prescribed to help with memory and learning like Exelon a rivastigmine and Aricept a donepezi.
- Detoxification especially to chemically induced amnesia like alcohol
- Occupational therapy will be recommended for severe amnesia to help lean new information and memory skills of daily activities.
- Some amnesia does not need treatment for they last for a while like severer head injury that may last for a month and trauma last for a minute or an hour.