Transient epileptic amnesia

The term “ transient epileptic amnesia ” was introduced by Narinder Kapur, who highlighted that amnesic attacks caused by epilepsy are similar to the syndrome of transient global amnesia , but they may have certain distinguishing features, including brevity and recurrence, which appeared to stand out as supportive of a diagnosis of transient. Accelerated long-term forgetting and autobiographical amnesia , which are invisible to standard memory tests, help to explain the discrepancy between normal test performance and prominent memory complaints among patients with epilepsy. There are a number of well recognised causes of transient amnesia , the most common probably being head injury, followed by transient global amnesia , migraine, drugs and rarely, transient ischemic attacks (mini strokes). Patients with TEA usually cannot remember the episodes.

Electroencephalographic (EEG) abnormalities are usually localized on the dominant or bilateral temporal lobes. The spells tend to occur on waking from sleep.

The mission of the Epilepsy Foundation is to lead the fight to overcome the challenges of living with epilepsy and to accelerate. There is a form of temporal lobe epilepsy where the main sign of a seizure is a 15- to 30-minute period of forgetting. This is called transient epileptic amnesia (TEA). Transient epileptic amnesia. This type of epilepsy mainly affects middle-aged adults.

Seizures occur about once a month. In addition to the amnesic episodes, many patients describe significant interictal memory difficulties. Performance on standard neuropsychological tests is often normal.

An EEG, performed after the episode, showed bilateral temporal electrographic seizures, orienting the diagnosis toward a transient epileptic amnesia.

The goal of this activity is to describe a case of transient epileptic amnesia (TEA) with radiologic localization, and clinical features and treatment of TEA that distinguish it from other forms of amnesia. During episodes, patients may exhibit repetitive questioning and appear confuse disoriente or anxious, but typically have otherwise preserved. Episodes of transient amnesia , which frequently occur on awakening and are associated with other memory problems, may be a symptom of a distinct type of epilepsy. A British team describes this condition they call transient epileptic amnesia in a study published in the Annals of Neurology.

Others, however, will have no warning before the onset of memory loss. This diagnosis, however, is seldom suspected by clinicians and remains controversial. The amnestic attacks are often associated with persistent memory complaints. This study was designed to provide the first description of transient epileptic amnesia in a substantial series of.

Background: TEA is a focal epilepsy characterized by transient episodes of isolated amnesia. With typical onset in late adulthood and frequent interictal memory impairment, TEA can mimic early neurodegenerative disease or be mistaken for cognitive aging. During an episode of TGA, a person is not able to make new memories. These findings support the theory of a Todd phenomenon as the underlying pathophysiological mechanism in transient epileptic amnesia. Its pathophysiology remains elusive, and current hypotheses favour a non- epileptic cause.

But hypothetically TGA might share a common mechanism with its closest mimic, namely transient epileptic amnesia. It usually happens in people who are middle-aged or elderly (most commonly after the age of 60). These patients had recurrent episodes of transient amnesia with preservation of cognitive function. From , the free encyclopedia.

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Alzheimer disease seen in these patients led to their evaluation. These clinical episodes and the bilateral interictal epileptiform electroencephalographic changes found in both patients led to the diagnosis of transient epileptic amnesia , a syndrome. Attacks are frequent, often occur on waking and typically respond promptly to anticonvulsants.

In this article, we describe the clinical and cognitive profile of this emerging syndrome, and present new data that provide at most weak support for its proposed relationship to cerebrovascular disease.