Organic Mental Disorder

Question 1

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 1

Anterograde amnesia is a loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remains intact.

Question 2

What are characteristics of amnesic syndrome?

Answer 2

• preseeved global intellectual abilities
• anterograde amnesia
• retrograde amnesia
• preserved registration/ working memory
• preserved procedural (implicit) memory

Question 3

What are possible causes of amnesic syndrome?

Answer 3

• hippocampal damage

- diencephalic damage

Question 4

What can cause hippocampal damage that can lead to amnesic syndrome?

Answer 4

• herpes simplex encephalitis
• anoxia
• surgical removal of temporal lobes
• bilateral posterior cerebral artery occlusion
• closed head injury
• early Alzheimer’s disease

Question 5

What can cause diencephalic damage that can lead to amnesic syndrome?

Answer 5

• Korsakoff’s syndrome
• 3rd ventricle tumours and cysts
• bilateral thalamic infarction
• post subarachnoid haemorrhage, especially from anterior communicating artery aneurysms