NAME : FIQHI WULANDARI

NIM : 190210401119

CAUSE AND EFFECT ESSAY

Insomnia and Its Causes

Almost any time when you watch a Hollywood action movie, or play an action video
game, you will most likely meet a character suffering from memory loss. This phenomena of
memory loss, also known as amnesia, is a complicated neurological mechanism, hiding
behind a seemingly simple facade. Amnesia is extremely widespread worldwide, because,
unlike popular belief, it can be triggered not only by a head trauma, but also by a number of
other factors.

So, what exactly is amnesia? Doctors usually use this term to define a group of mental
conditions characterized by a temporary (most often) disturbance or complete loss of the
ability to recall stored memories, or memorize something or “the human memory”. Amnesia
refers to partial or complete memory loss. Becoming forgetful is common and normal as a
person ages, however, when memory loss begins to interfere with activities of daily living, it
needs to be assessed by a physician to be a sign of a deeper illness. Memory loss or amnesia
is said to be present when a person loses the ability to remember events and information that
they would regularly or normally remember.

Memory loss may deal with things heard or seen within a few minutes or seconds or
something that has occurred in the past. Amnesia may begin suddenly or may follow a longer
course as it worsens over time, for example over a year or so. It is most often a temporary
condition. Amnesia can be severely distressing for the patient as well as for his or her family
and friends. If amnesia is found to interfere with activities of daily living it should be
analyzed.

The causes of amnesia will be analyzed below; so far, it is important to point out that
there exist at least four major types of this mental condition: retrograde amnesia, anterograde
amnesia, transient global amnesia, and infantile amnesia.

Retrograde amnesia is probably what the majority of people have in their minds when
talking about this mental condition; retrograde amnesia implies a person’s inability (or
impaired ability) to recall events that occurred in the past. Although it might be a result of a
trauma, there can be other factors causing this condition, including various mental disorders.
Anterograde amnesia is the reverse-side of retrograde amnesia. This is caused by the damage
to the hippocampus or surrounding cortices, disabling memory formation, and often it is
permanent if the brain is damaged (Liden, 2010). Patients with anterograde amnesia are
unable to form new memories from the point when it is presented and to recall memories
recently formed because information is not moved to the long-term memory. However,
patients may be able to learn new skills without being taught again because the declarative
memory is impaired while the procedural memory continues to function (Liden, 2010).
Although anterograde amnesia is permanent when brain damage is presented, scientists
actually are studying ways to apply neural plasticity, the capability of nerves to form new
ways to recover lost functionality, to perform treatments for this and other diseases caused by
brain injury. Another type of amnesia is transient global amnesia can appear and vanish
within a couple of hours. TGA is not studied well enough, but scientists believe it has
something to do with a seizure-like contraction of the blood vessels supplying the brain; as a
result, a person may “fall out” of the memorization process, losing memories immediately
preceding the “seizure,” and those that would be obtained within its course. Yet another type,
infantile amnesia is something that all of us have experienced: it is a natural condition when a
person cannot remember (clearly, or entirely) their first 3-5 years of life (Health Line).

The following types of amnesia are related to disturbing events, or abuse of alcohol and
drugs. Traumatic amnesia is caused by a hard blow to the head as a result of a car accident.
The person affected may experience a brief loss of consciousness, or even go into a coma.
The majority of cases are temporary and it lasts depending of the severity of the injury.
Childhood, or infantile, amnesia occurs when the person is unable to recall events from early
childhood. The causes could be that this may be associated with language developments, or
the possibilities of some areas of the brain were not fully mature during childhood. Wernike-
Korsakoff’s amnesia is caused by excessive abuse of alcohol, or by malnutrition linked to
thiamin deficiency. Patients with this disease have poor coordination and loss of feeling in the
fingers and toes.

To diagnose amnesia in a patient, a doctor will do an evaluation to discard other possible

causes of memory loss, such as dementia, depression, a brain tumor, or Alzheimer’s disease.
First, the doctor starts the evaluation with a detailed medical history, including the type of
memory loss, when the problems started and how they progressed, factors that started
amnesia, such as a head injury or a traumatic event, family history especially of neurological
disease, use of medication or alcohol and drugs, history of seizures, headaches, depression or
cancer, and other symptoms (language problems, personality changes, or impaired abilities)
(“Test and diagnosis,” 2009). Next, doctor will do a physical examination, including a
neurological exam to check reflexes, sensory function, balance, or the physiological aspects
of the brain and the nervous system (“Test and diagnosis,” 2009). Then, doctor will do a
cognitive exam, testing patient’s thinking, judgment, short- and long-term memory. Finally,
doctor will verify any internal damage of the brain through MRI, CT scans, and
electroencephalogram.

As for symptoms, there are two major signs of amnesia: a degraded ability to memorize
something new (anterograde amnesia), or a disability to recall events from the past
(retrograde amnesia). It can take different forms—for example, a person might not be able to
recall what they have been doing five minutes ago (problems with short-term memory), but
would perfectly restore the details of some presidential election that occurred 20 years ago;
or, vice versa, a person could live with a memory span of a couple of minutes, completely
forgetting everything that goes beyond this time limit. Unlike some people tend to think,
amnesia is not the same as dementia: amnesiac memory loss does not affect one’s intelligence
or personality. Rather often, people with amnesia understand there is a problem with their
memorizing capabilities, and do not lose the adequacy of perception and actions. There are
also some other symptoms typical for amnesia: confabulation (a condition when a person
unintentionally makes up their memories in order to fill the gap in perception; these memories
may be made up completely from scratch, or combined from fragments of real ones) and
disorientation (Mayo Clinic).

There are several major causes of amnesia: seizures and strokes (which tend to do a lot of
brain damage, so it is unsurprising that they often cause memory loss); brain inflammations
such as encephalitis, as well as viruses such as herpes; oxygen deprivation; organic changes in
the brain structure (for example, in cases of schizophrenia or brain tumors) or head
injuries. There are also causes of psychogenic origins; for example, victims of rape or
molestation often subconsciously develop a form of amnesia to protect themselves from
painful memories. Soldiers who have gone through extremely stressful combat situations,
victims of natural disasters, terrorist acts and other forms of violence can also develop certain
forms of amnesia as a response to traumatizing experiences.

As we can see, amnesia is not the same as dementia or other cognitive-behavioral

disorders. It does not affect one’s personality, judgment, or perceptive-cognitive capabilities,
but only affects a person’s ability to memorize and/or recall events. There are several types of
amnesia, such as retrograde/anterograde amnesia, transient global amnesia, and infantile
amnesia. The main signs of any form of amnesia are either an impaired ability to recall the
events that occurred in the past, or to memorize/learn new information. The factors causing
amnesia can have different origins, starting from head injuries or mental disorders, and ending
up with traumatizing experiences or viruses.