Amnestic syndrome is a psychiatric disorder that includes the symptoms of brain tissue lesions and is manifested by characteristic signs of amnesia with loss of cognitive function.
This is a serious pathological condition, strongly desocializing a person, infinitely affecting the aspects of his behavior, with a poor prognosis destroying the core of the personality. This is not a separate characteristic disease, but a condition that occurs with various pathological manifestations. The disease is not selective in terms of gender, age, it greatly affects the life aspects of the individual and himself.
Description of the disease
Amnestic syndrome (ICD F10.6) is a fairly well-known disorder, is a memory loss syndrome.
Memory is an important characteristic of the human cognitive process. The memory function is based not only on learning, but also on the emotional component, which is present in memories of various kinds, colored emotionally. Memory involves a large number of parts of the brain that are responsible for certain functions. In this regard, memory impairment is a very traumatic symptom, knocking out the whole family from the usual way of life, takes away the most valuable, dearest memories from a person. Loss of memory is accompanied by impaired memory functions, and learning skills in a person are completely disabled.
International Classifier Code
Amnestic syndrome is especially classified by the ICD, it simultaneously refers to many pathologies, since it is only part of an isolated disease. The most characteristic pathological changes that are accompanied by similar symptoms are included in section F 00-09. In addition to the fact that the syndrome refers to the symptomatology of several diseases, ICD 10 has a separate section that characterizes it as a separate integral diagnosis. It is used if there is an undeveloped origin, that is, it is not possible to explain the symptoms present in a different way. It is indicated that the genesis of the syndrome is not elucidated, not provoked by psychoactive drugs, it does not have an alcoholic root cause. In addition, it is often indicated that the syndrome started suddenly, as it is quite significant for subsequent diagnosis.
Development reasons
Pathomorphological changes in the amnestic syndrome can be temporary in nature or may be long-lasting and go into the defeat of the organic type. Quite often, a violation begins with the intermediate part of the brain, captures such parts of the hypocampus as visual tubercles. The foci of pathology located in the brain zones of these locations invariably affect the volume and quality of memory. There is a probability of violation of the processes of remembering forms, in some cases there is confusion in words, images, geometric shapes.
The cause of the development of the disease can be pathologies that affect the brain, NS.
After a stroke
The formation of organic amnestic syndrome occurs against the background of some vascular diseases, for example, stroke. It can also form as a result of traumatic damage to brain tissue. A variety of lesions of the cerebral cortex, white matter, nerves, arteries can cause memory impairment, cause amnestic failure, which is the beginning of the development of amnestic syndrome. Hematomas and hemorrhages of various localization and origin can also lead to a similar syndrome. Massive brain tissue injuries provoked by carbon monoxide poisoning end quite negatively.
Epilepsy
Lesions of the temporal lobe, for example, epilepsy, are also able to carry amnestic syndrome in their structure. The trigger for the development of pathology can be a cancer process. It develops most rapidly against the background of damage to the ventricular walls.
Often the root cause is Alzheimer's disease and other dementia states, for example, dementia-type atherosclerosis, Levy dementia, Kreutzfelt-Jacob pathology.
Also, post-commotion disorders that occur when squeezing certain areas of the brain can provoke amnestic syndrome. In addition, there is transient amnesia (having a global, but passing character), developing, for example, after a transient ischemic attack.
Often, the disease develops against the background of tuberculous meningitis with exudates and granulomatosis, generalized herpes-type encephalitis, and Wernicke pathology.
Alcoholism
A very common cause of the development of amnestic syndrome is alcoholism. Quite often it is accompanied by palimsests - short-term memory failures in a state of intoxication. Also, this syndrome can occur in severe forms of somatovegetative diseases with severe brain damage, severe immunodeficiency. Amnestic syndrome against the background of alcohol dependence occurs primarily due to a deficiency of vitamins included in group B, since alcohol is a powerful antagonist of these elements.
Korsakovsky syndrome
There is also such a variation as Korsakovsky syndrome. This is a disorder that occurs with brain damage. In essence, its underlying causes are similar to the causes of the amnestic syndrome, but the disorder itself has specific characteristics. In some cases, the described condition develops due to acute psychological trauma and pathological affect. The disease is also present in the structure of the symptom complex of hysteroid patients, however, the pathology is not typical and is characterized by the appearance of pseudodementia.
Amnestic syndrome in the structure of various diseases is very common.
Symptomatology
Such an organic type syndrome is formed during organic lesions of the National Assembly. In this case, fixative amnesia is absent, in which forgetting extends to events of a stream character.
If a pathological manifestation occurred on the background of a head injury, then the formation of retrograde amnesia most often occurs. In this case, the patient forgets the events preceding the injury. In some cases, events that occur after a trauma fall out of memory. In this case, anterograde amnesia is formed.
With Korsakov’s syndrome, quite characteristic symptoms are observed. It can be of two types - productive and not productive. When assessing the condition of a demented patient, stunning or amnestic symptoms can be detected. A similar condition occurs with acute injuries and against the background of post-traumatic syndrome. Some time after the injury, the traumatic state of stunning transforms into a classic amnestic syndrome. Korsakovsky syndrome is characterized by such components as a violation of the spatio-temporal orientation, a memory defect, fixative amnesia. However, the autopsychic orientation is fully preserved, especially at the beginning of the development of the syndrome. Such information is quite deep, and in memory it is held for a long time. With Korsakov’s syndrome, the appearance of confabulations is possible - a fantastic replacement for events that are formed absolutely unexpectedly. Such stories are completely devoid of a real foundation. A person who has been in a hospital for a month can say that he flew into space yesterday. In addition, pseudo-reminiscences are observed when the patient begins to replace the lost events with those that occurred in the past.
Dementia is sometimes accompanied by a symptom such as cryptomnesia, which manifests itself in replacing lost events with those that the patient had once read about (or seen). That is, a person begins to pass out read stories as events of his life.
Distinctive features of the syndrome against the background of alcoholism
In alcoholism, the amnestic syndrome has symptoms similar to Korsakov’s, but there are distinctive characteristics. The main symptoms of vitamin B deficiency are polyneuropathy (manifested by damage to the peripheral part of the NS), delusions of jealousy and other symptoms of alcoholism.
Amnestic syndrome (ICD 10 F10.6) that occurs after electroconvulsive therapy is not uncommon. Most often, these conditions are transient, but they greatly deplete the patient. Memory returns over time, but in some cases there may be elements of loss.
Verbal memory impairment
One of the symptoms of amnestic syndrome is a dysmnestic disorder, which consists in weakening verbal memory. The patient begins to forget intentions, actions, names, however, complete forgetting does not reach. Patients understand their defect and try their best to compensate for it by opening notebooks and writing down all the information to be memorized.
Amnestic Syndrome Treatment
Currently, there are many tests to evaluate cognitive functions and, accordingly, identify the manifestations of the syndrome. Pathology therapy is prescribed depending on the test results.
Amnestic syndrome against the background of dementia cannot be stopped, that is, it will not be possible to return the patient to the previous state. However, the use of medicines can stop the development of the disorder at a detected level. This approach allows you to maintain the patient's condition at an adequate level. In addition, experts recommend the use of drugs that inhibit the processes of anabolism in the human body: “Bilobil”, “Memantine”, “Meme”.
Pathogenetic therapy of amnestic syndrome, which developed against the background of Alzheimer's disease, also exists. Cholinesterase inhibitors allow to improve the general well-being of the patient and effectively influence his condition.
Amnestic syndrome on the background of alcoholism involves detoxification and vitamin therapy.
Equally useful are techniques that impede the progress of dementia. Post-stroke syndrome involves the use of a large number of psychotropic and neuroprotective drugs.
If the patient is accompanied by psychotic symptoms of an organic amnestic syndrome, in treatment he is shown antipsychotic drugs in the minimum doses: Risolept, Aminazin, Tizercin, Triftazin, Truksal.
In the presence of cognitive impairment, nootropic drugs are used for therapy, which help the thought process. In addition, they are able to stimulate physical and mental activity, and correct the negative effects of certain antipsychotics. The most popular drugs are Phenibut, Glycine, Pantothenic Acid, Pantogam, Pyrintol.
For patients with amnestic syndrome, cognitive training is incredibly useful, they allow you to maintain cognitive capabilities at a basic level. In addition, patients with anxiety need support from relatives and the use of sedatives.