Thursday 8 December 2011

SYMPTOMS AND SIGNS IN PSYCHIATRY - 4


10. Disorders of Memory

·         Amnesias: It is the partial or total failure to recall past happenings and is due to disturbances of memory.

o   Immediate memory is the ability to recall events which have just happened like repeating a series of numbers or phrases just told to the patient.  Information held for less than a second.

o   Short term memory (primary memory) is tested by asking about personal events which have occurred a few seconds to a few hours earlier.  It is limited to 15-30 seconds.

o   Remote memory (secondary memory) encompasses events which happened days or months or years ago.

Amnestic syndrome is a disturbance of memory characterized by prominent lapses of memory of recent events in clear consciousness.

·     Paramnesias: These are distorted or falsified recall of events in relation to details or their temporal relationships.

o   Distortion and Falsification occur in daily life where accurate and false details are mixed together unintentionally.

o   Comfabulation is the unintentional filling of gaps of memory with material which is untrue and fanciful.

o   Dejavu is an error of recognition where an event or situation though occurring for the first time, strikes a familiar chord, as if it had happened earlier.  Jamais vu is a feeling of strangeness to familiar situations or events.


·         Hypermnesias: It is not truly abnormal.  It is an extreme degree of retention and recall of events. Every minor detail is recalled accurately.

(to be conted...)

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