Post-traumatic amnesia

Post-traumatic amnesia
SpecialtyPsychiatry, neurology, neuropsychology

Post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) is a state of confusion that occurs immediately following a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in which the injured person is disoriented and unable to remember events that occur after the injury.[1] The person may be unable to state their name, where they are, and what time it is.[1] When continuous memory returns, PTA is considered to have resolved.[2] While PTA lasts, new events cannot be stored in the memory.[3] About a third of patients with mild head injury are reported to have "islands of memory", in which the patient can recall only some events.[3] During PTA, the patient's consciousness is "clouded".[4] Because PTA involves confusion in addition to the memory loss typical of amnesia, the term "post-traumatic confusional state" has been proposed as an alternative.[4]

There are two types of amnesia: retrograde amnesia (loss of memories that were formed shortly before the injury) and anterograde amnesia (problems with creating new memories after the injury has taken place).[5] PTA may refer to only anterograde forms, or to both retrograde and anterograde forms.[6][7]

A common example in sports concussion is the quarterback who was able to conduct the complicated mental tasks of leading a football team after a concussion, but has no recollection the next day of the part of the game that took place after the injury. Individuals with retrograde amnesia may partially regain memory later, but memories are not regained with anterograde amnesia because they were not encoded properly.[8]

The term "post-traumatic amnesia" was first used in 1940 in a paper by Symonds to refer to the period between the injury and the return of full, continuous memory, including any time during which the patient was unconscious.[9]

  1. ^ a b Lee LK (2007). "Controversies in the sequelae of pediatric mild traumatic brain injury". Pediatric Emergency Care. 23 (8): 580–83, quiz 584–86. doi:10.1097/PEC.0b013e31813444ea. PMID 17726422. S2CID 33766395.
  2. ^ Petchprapai N, Winkelman C (2007). "Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Determinants and Subsequent Quality of Life. A Review of the Literature". Journal of Neuroscience Nursing. 39 (5): 260–272. doi:10.1097/01376517-200710000-00002. PMID 17966292. S2CID 24802904.
  3. ^ a b van der Naalt J (2001). "Prediction of outcome in mild to moderate head injury: A review". Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 23 (6): 837–851. doi:10.1076/jcen.23.6.837.1018. PMID 11910548. S2CID 146179592.
  4. ^ a b Trzepacz PT, Kennedy RE (2005). "Delerium and Posttraumatic Amnesia". In Silver JM, McAllister TW, Yudofsky SC (eds.). Textbook Of Traumatic Brain Injury. American Psychiatric Pub., Inc. pp. 175–176. ISBN 978-1-58562-105-7. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
  5. ^ Shaw NA (2002). "The Neurophysiology of Concussion". Progress in Neurobiology. 67 (4): 281–344. doi:10.1016/S0301-0082(02)00018-7. PMID 12207973. S2CID 46514293.
  6. ^ Sivák Š, Kurča E, Jančovič D, Petriščák Š, Kučera P (2005). "An Outline of the Current Concepts of Mild Brain Injury with Emphasis on the Adult Population" (PDF). Časopis Lékařů Českých. 144 (7): 445–450. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-27.
  7. ^ Cantu RC (2001). "Posttraumatic Retrograde and Anterograde Amnesia: Pathophysiology and Implications in Grading and Safe Return to Play". Journal of Athletic Training. 36 (3): 244–248. PMC 155413. PMID 12937491.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rees03 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Symonds CP. Concussion and contusion of the brain and their sequelae. In: Brock S, ed. Injuries of the Skull, Brain and Spinal Cord: Neuro-Psychiatric, Surgical, and Medico-Legal Aspects. London, UK: Bailliere, Tindall and Cox; 1940:69–111.