Letters to the editor
Transient semantic amnesia: a new syndrome?
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The term transient global amnesia was first coined by Fisher
and Adams in 1964 to describe a clinical syndrome characterised by the
abrupt onset of severe amnesia usually accompanied by repetitive questioning, occurring in middle aged or elderly people, and lasting several hours.1 The aetiology of transient global amnesia
has been a topic of debate, but in the past few years the situation has
become considerably clearer with the emergence of the following diagnostic criteria: (1) attacks must be witnessed and information available from an observer who was present for most of the attack, (2)
there must be clear cut anterograde amnesia during the attack, (3)
clouding of consciousness and loss of personal identity must be absent
and the cognitive impairment limited to amnesia, (4) there should be no
accompanying focal neurological symptoms and functionally relevant
focal signs, (5) epileptic features must be absent, (6) attacks must
resolve within 24 hours, and
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