Korsakov's syndrome

The most common Korsakov syndrome occurs with severe intoxication, infectious diseases, a deficiency of B vitamins, brain tumors, head injuries, hypoxia, and cerebral circulation disorders.

The main symptoms of the syndrome are pronounced memory disorders. Patients almost instantly forget the essence of the conversation, do not remember who talked to them, so they can many times greet the same people. They ask the same questions, can not answer what they did, they read the same book page for several weeks, forgetting what they read right away.

Korsakov's syndrome causes a sharp deterioration of verbal memory, emotional and verbal memory also suffers. In this case, the events of the past life, sometimes very remote in time, are remembered very brightly by the patients. Of the other disorders there is a disruption in the orientation in time, and the patient, often, can not name the time of the year, the day of the week and the number. When
The development of more severe disorders, there is a loss of orientation, even in
Familiar environment.

The Russian psychiatrist Korsakov opened the disease. Syndrome is also expressed in the appearance of false memories, which are of two types. In the first case, current events are replaced by real events that occurred in the past. The patient believes that they occurred just now. This type of false memories is called pseudo-reminiscence. The second type of false memories is expressed in the fact that the patient, when questioning about the latest events of life, reports fictional facts and stories, including fantastic ones. Such memories are called confabulation. Some patients experience false recognition of strangers.

The Korsakov syndrome in any form of manifestation is expressed in intellectual insufficiency, monotony and stereotyping of judgments, a decrease in the productivity of the activity, inability to notice the differences between reality and false memories.

Patients may remain inactive for long hours, they lose their level of volitional activity and motivation. The most common Korsakov syndrome is observed in people in old age and patients with alcoholism. In the old age, the most common disorders of orientation in space and the immediate environment. The gaps in memory are replaced by events of the distant past. There are cases of transient flow in patients who are diagnosed with Korsakov's syndrome. Treatment is mostly symptomatic and depends on the underlying disease. Patients are recommended drugs that stimulate brain metabolism (vitamins, nootropins). In the case of a syndrome with a lack of vitamin B1, intramuscular injections of this vitamin are prescribed. Good results are obtained by a high-protein diet with a low carbohydrate content. In most cases, adverse predictions - most often there are persistent mental disorders, sharply reduced the possibility of social adaptation. Only rarely, in some cases, complete recovery is possible without the appearance of visible intellectual disorders. The syndrome is often accompanied by polyneuropathy, which is a simultaneous lesion of the peripheral nerves. In this case, the sensitivity of the lower limbs is impaired, and paresis may occur. In the case of a syndrome on the soil of chronic alcohol intoxication, the main condition for treatment is a complete refusal to drink alcoholic beverages. Since this condition is difficult enough, such patients are prescribed specialized therapy.