AMNESIA

What is amnesia?

- Amnesia is a dramatic form of memory loss. The memory can be either wholly or
partially lost due to the extent of damage that was caused.

- The term is from Ancient Greek 'forgetfulness'; from ἀ- (a-) 'without', and μνήσις
(mnesis) 'memory'.

For us to understand amnesia, we have to understand memory first.

Memory:

There are three stages of memory:

- Encoding - The brain receives new information and creates a series of connections to
represent that information.

- Storage - Those previously formed connections are maintained in your brain, even
though you may not be using them.

- Retrieval - The brain recreates or activates the connections that represent previously
encoded information and you can recall or recognize that information from the past.

Two main types of memory:

- Declarative/Explicit: Knowledge of facts and events in everyday life. Amnesia can
erase these memories.

- Nondeclarative/Implicit: Non-conscious knowledge. Amnesia will not erase these

“ingrained” memories. If you have amnesia, you should still remember how to walk
or ride a bike.

Now, back to amnesia.

Types of amnesia:
- Retrograde Amnesia - a person cannot remember events that occurred before their
trauma

- Anterograde Amnesia - a person cannot form new memories after their trauma

- Post-traumatic Amnesia - memory loss resulting from a hard blow to the head
 - Dissociative Amnesia/Psychogenic Amnesia - a mental health disorder where you
experience amnesia after a significant trauma. You block out both personal
information and the traumatic incident from your memory

- Transient global amnesia - Memory loss is sudden and only lasts up to 24 hours.

Symptomps
- impaired ability to learn new information
- impaired ability to remember past events
- partial or total loss of all memory
- confusion

Causes
- head injuries
- brain tumors
- strokes
- some medication
- surgery
- emotional trauma

Diagnosis
- A doctor will need to rule out other possible types of memory loss, including those
caused by dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and depression

Treatment
- Many forms of amnesia fix themselves without being treated
- Emotional support and love as well as medication and psychological therapy have
been proven effective