Evaluating the Limitations of Post-traumatic Amnesia as a Severity Scale Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) account to a third (30.5%) of all injury-related deaths in the U.S. with an estimated 1.7 million individuals sustaining TBI each year (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). Classifications of brain injury (e.g., mild, moderate and severe) is mostly done using the Glasgow coma scale (GCS) which has gained broad acceptance for the assessment of the severity of brain damage (Bauer & Fritz, 2004). Recent studies suggest that almost all patients with moderate or severe TBI have a period of recovery during which they are responsive but confused. This state is commonly referred to as the post-traumatic amnesia. Post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) is defined as “a failure of continuous memory” (Artiola et al., 1980; p.377). PTA is often cited as the best method for codifying the degree, level of recovery and outcome after a closed head injury (e.g., Artieola et al., 1980; Tate, Pfaff, & Jurjevic, 2000). PTA duration is a better indicator of outcome than early injury scales such as the GCS score (Richardson et al., 2009).This analysis will examine the limitations of the general PTA assessment scale, and investigate the benefits and limitations of both retrospective and prospective methods used to measure the duration of PTA. There is a frequent assumption that coma depth and extent, and PTA are concomitant—reflecting different facets of common mechanism (Wilson, Teasdale, Hadley, Wiedmann, & Lang, 1993). Researchers contend that when PTA and coma have been juxtaposed, their correlation has substantiated to be only moderately closer. Furthermore, they assert that previous studies exploring PTA and coma as predictors of outcome ... ... middle of paper ... ...reliable is it? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC486693/pdf/jnnpsyc00001-0046.pdf McMillan, T.M., Jongen, E.L.M.M., Greenwood, and R.J. (1996). Assessment of post-traumatic amnesia after severe closed head injury: retrospective or prospective? Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 60, 422-427 http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/60/4/422.full.pdf Tate, R. L., & Pfaff, A., Jurjevic, L. (2000)Resolution of disorientation and amnesia during post-traumatic amnesia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 68, 178-185 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1736763/pdf/v068p00178.pdf Wilson J.T.L., Teasdale, G.M., Hadley, D.M., & Wiedmann, K.D., Lang, D. (2012). Post-traumatic amnesia: still a valuable yardstick. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 56, 198-201 http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/57/2/198.full.pdf
The only result from the testing consistent with a brain injury was the abnormal pupil response of the right eye (constriction) (Traumatic brain injury, 2015). The physical effects that could have pointed to a brain injury were the laceration to the right side of the gentleman’s head and the amount of blood loss. The complaints from the patient that may have insisted a brain injury included a severe headache, dizziness, and nausea (Traumatic brain injury, 2015).
Hippocampus is a small, curved region, which exists in both hemispheres of the brain and plays a vital role in emotions, learning and acquisition of new information. It also contributes majorly to long term memory, which is permanent information stored in the brain. Although long term memory is the last information that can be forgotten, its impairment has become very common nowadays. The dysfunction is exemplified by many neurological disorders such as amnesia. There are two types of amnesia, anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde amnesia is inability in forming new information, while retrograde refers to the loss of the past memory. As suggested by Cipolotti and Bird (2006), hippocampus’s lesions are responsible for both types of amnesia. According to multiple trace theory, the author suggests that hippocampal region plays a major role in effective retrieving of episodic memory (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). For example, patients with hippocampal damage show extensively ungraded retrograde amnesia (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). They have a difficult time in retrieving information from their non-personal episodic events and autobiographical memory. However, this theory conflicts with standard model of consolidation. The difference between these theories suggests that researchers need to do more work to solve this controversy. Besides retrieving information, hippocampus is also important in obtaining new semantic information, as well as familiarity and recollection (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). For instance, hippocampal amnesic patient V.C shows in ability to acquire new semantic knowledge such as vocabularies and factual concepts (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). He is also unable to recognize and recall even...
Often the injury is caused by being hit with a blunt object, serious illness of a degenerative brain disease. The degree of severity depends on the extent of the damage. In some cases, it can be temporary. However, in such a case as Greg’s, it can be progressive. It normally affects the memory storage area of the brain, which are located in the frontal lobes. Apparently, the frontal lobes have a series of functions. They are involved in motor skills, language, memory, impulse control, sexual behavior and judgement. In this regard, damage to this area will cause problems with all of the above areas though to varying degrees. According to Levin (1987), TBI (traumatic brain injury) often causes harm to the frontal lobe. Memory impairment in TBI occurs in three main categories explicit, implicit and source-context memory. Explicit memory deals with recognition and recall. Patients with this form tend to perform poorly in visual and cure-recalled tests that their healthy counterparts. This form seemed the most prevalent in
Researchers and doctors had little information on the proper management and care of someone who sustained a concussion. There were 2,350 participants in this study, with each player being enrolled in any one of the Ivy League schools, University of Virginia, or University of Pittsburgh. Players who experienced a mild head injury during practice or a game were removed from the field to be examined and assessed for “cognitive and psychosocial dysfunction through the use of neuropsychological techniques and self-reported questionnaires up to four times after injury” (Barth, et al., 1989). In order for a player to be diagnosed with a mild head injury, he must have had either a head contact injury or a complete loss of consciousness that lasted under two minutes and displayed some sort of memory and/or attention deficient. The results of Barth’s study showed that there were 195 documented mild head injuries.
Concussions are very common. In the United States alone 1.4 million people suffer from concussions annually (Schafer). Researchers studied fifty brains of people who have suffered from concussions t...
Understanding the reasoning behind amnesia and the hippocampus is of critical importance in neuroscience. Discussed by Cipolotti & Bird (2006), LTM impairments can lead to anterograde and retrograde amnesia if the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is damaged bilaterally. Specifically, the two most important types of LTM related to anterograde and retrograde amnesia are episodic and semantic memories. Conversely, many researchers have long debated the true functions of the hippocampus and have allowed two theories to emerge. The standard model of consolidation (SMC) assumes that the hippocampus is important in consolidating LTM, while the multiple trace theory (MTT) argues that information is encoded by specific memory traces by the hippocampus. These two theories help further explain the vast functions of the hippocampus. However, in regards to amnesic patients, the SMC has proven to be more widely accepted due to reported results implying that the hippocampus is important in consolidating LTM. In contrast, in anterograde patients, memories can be retrieved through recollection and familiarity. In fact, it has been proposed that the recol...
The specific brain regions affected by CTE are often debated, but some of the areas most commonly agreed upon to show deterioration are: limbic system (thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, mammillary bodies), hippocampus, cerebral cortex, fron...
The injury is defined as a concussion when “it causes a change in mental status such as amnesia, disorientation, mental fogginess, confusion, nausea or vomiting, blurred vision or loss of consciousness.” (Mayo Clinic, n.d.)
The article “How Our Brains Make Memories” explains how traumatic events and the memories they hold can become forgotten over time. Karim Nader recalls the day that two planes slammed into the twin towers in New York City and like almost every person in the United States he had vivid and emotional memories of that day. However he knew better than to trust his recollections of that day because he was an expert on memory. He attended college at the University of Toronto and in 1996 joined the New York University lab of Joseph LeDoux, a neuroscientist who studies how emotions influence memory. Fast forward to 2003, Nader is now a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, where he says “his memory of
Yates, Keith, et al. “Longitudinal Trajectories of Postconcussive Symptoms in Children With Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries and Their Relationship to Acute Clinical Status.” Pediatrics. 123.3 (2009) : 735-743. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
management of real-world memory demands despite profound anterograde amnesia. Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology, 30(8), 931-945.
The effects of trauma on the functioning of the brain is an expanding subject of research and treatment. Trauma can change the chemistry of the brain and disrupt normal human functioning. Information in this section has been taken from the works of Judith Lewis Hermann, MD, Robert Scaer,
Heinonen, H., Himanen, L., Isoniemi, H., Koponen, S., Portin, R., Taiminen, T. (2002). Axis 1 and 11 psychiatric disorders after traumatic brain injury: a 30-year follow-up study. Am J Psychiatry.159 (8): 1315-1321. (Medline).
Retrograde amnesia usually occurs due to severe trauma or damages to the temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex. The temporal lobe is located above the ears and is responsible for receiving information from opposite ears (Myers, p69). Within the ...
Sullivan, S. J., Hammond-Tooke, G. D., Schneiders, A. G., Gray, A. R., & McCrory, P. (2012). The diagnostic accuracy of selected neurological tests. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, 19. 423-427. doi:10.1016/j.jocn.2011.09.011