The types of amnesia or amnesic syndromes are various, as well as their classifications. It is a disorder that is characterized by the partial or complete loss of memory on the part of the person. According to diagnostic books, it is estimated that dissociative amnesia – a specific form – is present in up to 2.6% of some populations.
Amnesia can be classified into several types encompassed in two main ones. The first refers to the chronology of memory loss, that is, what type of information the patient is not able to remember. The second group brings them together according to the etiology or, what is the same, the underlying cause of the disease.
In general, the origins of amnesia can be organic or functional. Some of the most common triggering events are brain trauma and the use of certain drugs, for example.
Types of amnesia according to their chronology
According to the chronology, two types of amnesia can be distinguished: retrograde and anterograde. It should be noted that a patient can present both at the same time, so they are two complementary disorders.
On the other hand, this categorization does not refer to the causes, but to its symptoms. The Memory Health Check portal provides us with the definitions of these terms.
Anterograde amnesia
In this case, the new events are not transferred to the patient’s long-term memory. This means that the individual only remembers what happened before.
This type of amnesia supposes a serious loss of autonomy on a day-to-day basis, since not being able to make new memories and experiences causes various disorders from an emotional point of view. This also carries health risks in the form of accidents, for example, you can forget that you have started a fire soon after.
Retrograde amnesia
Here we are facing the other side of the coin, because in retrograde amnesia the patient does not remember anything about what happened before the onset of the disease. According to the International University of Valencia, all the information that was collected throughout life prior to the brain injury or triggering event can be forgotten.
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