This is the most common form of memory loss following a car accident. Anterograde amnesia is the most common. It is the loss of ability to form memories for a period of time after the accident , leading the individual not to “remember” a period of time after the traumatic head injury.
Retrograde amnesia is the loss of memories that formed before a traumatic head injury. People involved in a serious car crash or victims of violent crimes sometimes cannot remember the incident. When amnesia follows an external traumatic event like this, doctors call it dissociative, or psychogenic, amnesia.
The amnesia is usually. A head injury that leads to temporary loss of consciousness or amnesia is called a concussion (kun-KUH-shun). People who have head injuries in a car accident rarely, if ever, remember the accident. Memory loss could include difficulty remembering names or events.
There are two types of amnesia : retrograde amnesia (loss of memories that were formed shortly before the injury ) and anterograde amnesia (problems with creating new memories after the injury has taken place). Both retrograde and anterograde forms may be referred to as PTA, or the term may be used to refer only to anterograde amnesia.