International Journal of School and Cognitive Psychology
Open Access

Risk Factors and Complications of Retrograde Amnesia in Psychological Patients

Flaherty Coe^{* *}Correspondence: Flaherty Coe, Department of Cognitive Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece, Email:

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Description

Amnesia is an extreme case of memory loss. Amnesia is a type of memory loss where the ability of a person to create, store, and retrieve the memories is impaired memories formed prior to the onset of amnesia are affected by retrograde amnesia. Someone suffering from retrograde amnesia after a traumatic brain injury may be unable to recall what happened in the years, previous to the injury. Damage to the brain in various brain regions causes retrograde amnesia. Traumatic injury, serious illness, seizures or stroke, or a degenerative brain disease can cause this type of damage. Retrograde amnesia can be temporary, permanent, or progressive, depending on the cause.

Psychological amnesia

Typically, this is used to describe retrograde amnesia that has no physical basis and is brought on by psychological stress or trauma.

The following are a few examples of dissociative disorders that can accompany amnesia:

• Acute stress disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), dissociative identity disorder, and dissociative fugue.

• Being the victim of a violent crime or a terrorist attack; suffering sexual, physical, or emotional abuse; serving in the military; or surviving a natural.

• Any unbearable life circumstance that results in intense psychological stress and internal strife can leads to amnesia.

• Instead of interfering with the ability to develop new memories, psychological stressors are more likely to ruin the personal, historical memories.

Complications

The scope and severity of amnesia might differ. But even a little amnesia has an impact on daily living and quality of life. Problems with the syndrome can arise at work, in the classroom, and in social situations. Lost memories might not be retrievable. Some individuals with severe memory issues need to be closely watched or should live in a care facility.

Risk factors of retrograde amnesia

Retrograde amnesia is the opposite of anterograde amnesia, where a person cannot recall events that occurred before their trauma but can recall events that occurred after it. Damage to Broca’s or Wernicke’s areas of the brain, which are specifically linked to speech production and language information, would probably cause language-related memory loss. It usually results from damage to the brain regions most closely associated with declarative memory, such as the temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex. The damage may result from a cranial trauma, a cerebrovascular accident or stroke, a tumour, hypoxia, certain kinds of encephalitis and chronic alcoholism.

Retrograde amnesia can result from a variety of circumstances. These comprise:

Traumatic brain damage: Concussion is the most common mild traumatic brain injury. Retrograde amnesia can result after severe injuries, such as a significant head injury, which can harm the brain. The amnesia could be short lived or long lasting, depending on the degree of injury.

The absence of thiamine: Wernicke encephalopathy, which is often brought on by severe malnutrition or prolonged alcohol abuse, can result from thiamine deficiency. If untreated, Korsakoff psychosis, which manifests as both anterograde and retrograde amnesia, develops from Wernicke encephalopathy.

Encephalitis: A viral infection, such as herpes simplex, can cause encephalitis inflammation of the brain. The brain's memory storing regions may suffer damage from this inflammation.

Alzheimer's syndrome: Retrograde amnesia can get progressively worse with degenerative dementias like Alzheimer's. There is no known cure or effective treatment for this illness.

Stroke: Both significant strokes and numerous minor strokes can harm the brain. Memory issues could result depending on the area that is harmed. Memory issues and even dementia are frequently brought on by strokes. Verbal memory and visual memory are two kinds of memory that are susceptible to stroke.

Convulsions: Memory issues can result from any kind of seizure and can harm the brain. While some seizures only impact a small portion of the brain, others involve the entire brain. People with epilepsy frequently experience memory issues as a result of seizures in certain brain regions, particularly the temporal and frontal lobes.

Heart arrest: People experiencing cardiac arrest cannot breath for some time, which can deprive the oxygen levels in the brain. Serious brain injury resulting from this could impair cognitive function or cause amnesia in retrograde.