Understanding amnesia

Question 1

What is amnesia?

Answer 1

Memory loss, often through accident, disease or injury

Question 2

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 2

A memory condition that means now long-term memories cannot be made; this is typically caused by injury to the brain

Question 3

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 3

A memory condition that affects recall of memories prior to an injury to the brain

Question 4

Why does amnesia happen?

Answer 4

Causes include head and brain injuries, certain drugs, alcohol, traumatic events or diseases

Question 5

How does amnesia happen?

Answer 5

Things that happened recently and information that should be stored into the short term memory disappear

Question 6

How to overcome amnesia?

Answer 6

Increase vitamin C, drink more liquid, eat more green vegetables

Question 7

What are the symptoms of retrograde amnesia?

Answer 7

• Patients can forget who they are and where they come from.
• Possible for people with retrograde amnesia to regain some or all of their lost memory

Question 8

What are the symptoms of anterograde amnesia?

Answer 8

• Patient with anterograde amnesia has an intact short-term memory
• They are unable to lay down any new memories that last beyond a few minutes
• Their ability to transfer information from short-term to long-term memory is damaged
• Affects memory following a brain injury
• Typical for a patient to retain their long-term memories from before the incident