In short Korsakoff's is a type of amnesia that is brought on by thiamine deficiency. It is common for those with an alcohol dependency and those who are malnutritioned to develop Korsakoff's. Wernicke encephalopathy, also known as Wernicke's syndrome, is usually associated closely to Korsakoff's and is often called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. What is important to know is the two are not the same thing but are hard to disentangle. Korsakoff is believed and often referred to as being the more chronic of the two. Korsakoff's is symptoms are usually recognized by the individual themselves. It is described as having a feeling that they are becoming more forgetful. They also experience memory loss and confusion which leads to confabulation. The most recognizable symptom is confabulation. The individual will say things to fill in gaps in their memory. They seem to have acknowledged the memory is incomplete but try to say something to not appear demented. What is interesting is the confabulation isn't completely random. The patient may confabulate a truth about an event but the event didn't occur at the time they are being asked. The attached videos go into better detail of Korsakoff's and Wernicke's. Below is an interview of a man with Korsakoff's who is able to do complicated math but is not able to form new memories, check it out!
Monday, October 8, 2012
Korsakoff's syndrome
What is Korsakoff's syndrome? I hadn't heard of this syndrome before this week and decided to read a little more into the subject than what the book discussed. This week's post may be a bit more matter-of-factly written but it's because I want to relay information I felt was important, my appologies in advance.
In short Korsakoff's is a type of amnesia that is brought on by thiamine deficiency. It is common for those with an alcohol dependency and those who are malnutritioned to develop Korsakoff's. Wernicke encephalopathy, also known as Wernicke's syndrome, is usually associated closely to Korsakoff's and is often called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. What is important to know is the two are not the same thing but are hard to disentangle. Korsakoff is believed and often referred to as being the more chronic of the two. Korsakoff's is symptoms are usually recognized by the individual themselves. It is described as having a feeling that they are becoming more forgetful. They also experience memory loss and confusion which leads to confabulation. The most recognizable symptom is confabulation. The individual will say things to fill in gaps in their memory. They seem to have acknowledged the memory is incomplete but try to say something to not appear demented. What is interesting is the confabulation isn't completely random. The patient may confabulate a truth about an event but the event didn't occur at the time they are being asked. The attached videos go into better detail of Korsakoff's and Wernicke's. Below is an interview of a man with Korsakoff's who is able to do complicated math but is not able to form new memories, check it out!
The main causesof Korsakoff's syndrome are alcoholism and thiamine deficiency. Treatment for this syndrome is to avoid alcohol, take vitamins to supplement the thiamine, proper nutrition and water to hydrate. Avoiding alcohol is the main preventative measure. One of the risk factors for developing Korsakoff's was extreme dieting. Which leads me question, how prevelant is Korsakoff's amoung the homeless and those dieting? I never considered that extreme dieting could lead to memory problems. I hope you all found this subject interesting, see you next week.
In short Korsakoff's is a type of amnesia that is brought on by thiamine deficiency. It is common for those with an alcohol dependency and those who are malnutritioned to develop Korsakoff's. Wernicke encephalopathy, also known as Wernicke's syndrome, is usually associated closely to Korsakoff's and is often called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. What is important to know is the two are not the same thing but are hard to disentangle. Korsakoff is believed and often referred to as being the more chronic of the two. Korsakoff's is symptoms are usually recognized by the individual themselves. It is described as having a feeling that they are becoming more forgetful. They also experience memory loss and confusion which leads to confabulation. The most recognizable symptom is confabulation. The individual will say things to fill in gaps in their memory. They seem to have acknowledged the memory is incomplete but try to say something to not appear demented. What is interesting is the confabulation isn't completely random. The patient may confabulate a truth about an event but the event didn't occur at the time they are being asked. The attached videos go into better detail of Korsakoff's and Wernicke's. Below is an interview of a man with Korsakoff's who is able to do complicated math but is not able to form new memories, check it out!
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That video is pretty crazy. To think that the guy couldn't remember something so simple as a date, yet he could do math just fine. You also made a good point about homeless people and extreme dieters. I never really thought about that. Do you know if there have been any studies looking in to the correlation between those two groups and Korsakoff's Syndrome? It would make an interesting research topic.
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