It is human nature to sometimes forget some things. Thus, our brain protects itself from an excess of information. This situation is a variant of the norm. However, in some cases, the loss of memories is the main symptom of such a disease as amnesia. What is memory loss, what are the main causes of this condition?
Memory. General information
The human brain has enormous potential. Thanks to its functionality, we are able to perform meaningful actions, build logical chains, and analyze a large amount of information. Man is characterized by such complex mental processes as thinking, memory. Memory is the ability to save, restore, under certain conditions, the data that was obtained earlier. Thus, a person acquires life experience, assimilates knowledge, improves his skills and abilities. There are several types of memory: sensory, emotional, motor, verbal and semantic. Due to certain life circumstances, a person may lose the ability to remember and restore the events that occurredearlier.
Amnesia - what is it?
This disease can occur in older people (degradation of the brain over time), and in fairly young patients. With a partial loss of memory, only some images, fragments remain, it is rather difficult to recreate a complete picture of events. It is worth noting that such a process can develop slowly or come abruptly. In some cases, memory completely returns - this is the so-called short-term amnesia. The rest of the patients lose the ability to restore events from the past forever. Memory loss significantly affects the emotional state of the patient, he constantly needs support and care.
Types of amnesia. Disease symptoms
Depending on the symptoms, there are several types of the disease. The retrograde form is characterized by the fact that the patient is unable to remember what happened before the illness. Antegrade amnesia is the inability to recall recent events. At the same time, a person remembers well everything that was before the disease. With such a diagnosis, the patient hardly learns new information. There is also post-traumatic amnesia. What does this diagnosis mean? As a rule, short-term memory is disturbed. Associate this condition with all sorts of head injuries. With this type of amnesia, the patient does not remember the events that happened just before the injury. However, proper treatment completely restores the functionality of the brain. There is alsopost-hypnotic amnesia, in which everything that happened under hypnosis is erased from memory.
Other types of amnesia and their symptoms
Specialists also identify other types of memory loss. Childhood amnesia is characteristic of every person. Few can remember events from early childhood. The reason for this phenomenon is called the immaturity of some parts of the brain in babies. With fixation amnesia, the patient is poorly oriented in space, his own personality. This type of disease is typical for patients with Korsakoff's syndrome. Initial memory loss is a condition in which a person has certain information, but cannot remember its source, the conditions for obtaining data.
There is also dissociative amnesia. What is happening to the person in this case? The patient forgets moments from the past period, ceases to recognize familiar things, understand familiar words. With a dissociative variety, a person can completely forget all information about himself. This state can last for a few minutes or a couple of days. Often with this diagnosis, patients associate themselves with other personalities. Allocate and alcoholic amnesia. It occurs as a result of excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages. Often this is the first sign of the development of alcoholism.
Transient global amnesia
It is quite rare that a patient suddenly loses short-term memory. In this case, the ability to assess the situation is impaired, a personis in complete confusion. Transient amnesia is most common in older people. The reasons for this condition are little known. Experts note that cerebrovascular accident, dysfunction of the thalamus, orbitofrontal cortex, and cingulate gyrus can lead to such attacks of loss of memories. Such an attack can last from several minutes to a couple of hours. Then the memory just as abruptly returns. A more complex form of the disease is characterized by prolonged memory lapses - up to several days.
Classification of the disease depending on the rate of progression
Depending on how quickly memories are erased, there are such types of amnesia:
- The progressive form is characterized by a gradual loss of memory, with memories from childhood or adolescence being more recent than recent events. As a rule, a person remembers his skills and knowledge quite well. Gradually, all memories are mixed up, their emotional color goes out.
- Stationary amnesia has the following symptoms: there is a persistent loss of memory for a number of events, changes do not occur over time. Regressive amnesia is temporary, memories almost always return.
Main causes of memory loss
Any trauma to the head (and especially the temporal part) can lead to amnesia. Great emotional upheavals, psychological trauma sometimes cause the loss of memories. Factors that increase the risk of amnesia include severea form of overwork, constant migraines, a number of infectious diseases, as well as advanced age. Experts note that intoxication, poisoning (including medications) can have an extremely negative effect on the state of memory. Amnesia can also have the following causes: schizophrenia, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease. Malignant tumors in the brain often lead to memory loss. Also, any circulatory disorders in the head area can provoke amnesia.
Alcohol amnesia is caused by excessive drinking. Under the influence of alcohol, the transmission of nerve impulses is disrupted. A mild form of memory loss is called an alcoholic palimpsest. At the same time, a person remembers the main events, but he is not able to restore memories of small details, episodes. However, if alcohol abuse continues, then partial amnesia can develop into total amnesia, in which memory is completely lost.
Methods for diagnosing and treating memory loss
First of all, the diagnosis is based on a thorough questioning and examination of the patient. Next, it is necessary to conduct a study of the state of the vessels of the head and neck. Computed or magnetic resonance imaging of the brain is prescribed. Treatment is usually complex. If the root cause is the emotional component, then psychotherapy sessions are indicated. They are aimed at overcoming all kinds of psychological trauma. Medications are also prescribed: antidepressants, biostimulants, B vitamins, etc. In some cases, hypnosis helps to restore memory. With alcoholic amnesia, it is necessary to completely exclude the use of alcoholic beverages.
