alcohol amnestic disorder
Noun: A specific, alcohol-induced cognitive disorder characterized by a profound inability to form new memories (anterograde amnesia) and often some loss of established memories (retrograde amnesia), while long-term memory typically remains relatively preserved. It is a neurological syndrome resulting from severe thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency, commonly associated with the late stages of chronic alcoholism.
This is a clinical, medical term used primarily in psychiatry, neurology, and healthcare contexts to diagnose and describe a specific condition. * The patient's confabulation and severe memory gaps led to a diagnosis of alcohol amnestic disorder. * Alcohol amnestic disorder is often a precursor to or co-occurs with Wernicke's encephalopathy.
- The disorder is sometimes referred to historically as Korsakoff's syndrome or Korsakoff's psychosis, named after the neuropsychiatrist Sergei Korsakoff.
- It is a core component of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, where Wernicke's encephalopathy represents the acute, life-threatening phase and Korsakoff's syndrome represents the chronic, amnestic disorder.
- Korsakoff's Syndrome: The most common direct synonym in medical terminology.
- Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome: The full neurological disorder encompassing both the acute (Wernicke's) and chronic (Korsakoff's) phases.
- Alcohol-Induced Persisting Amnestic Disorder: A more descriptive formal diagnostic phrasing.
- Korsakoff's psychosis
- Amnestic-confabulatory syndrome (descriptive)
- Anterograde amnesia: The primary symptom—the inability to create new memories after the onset of the disorder.
- Confabulation: A common symptom where the patient fills memory gaps with fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories, often without intent to deceive.
- Thiamine deficiency: The primary underlying nutritional cause.
- dementia observed during the last stages of severe chronic alcoholism; involves loss of memory for recent events although long term memory is intact