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Post-traumatic amnesia.

Memory loss associated with the events of a traumatic nature (physical or mental impact), is called " post-traumatic amnesia". Post-traumatic amnesia can be complete or partial. With partial amnesia, vague, indistinct memories of the facts of the victim's life remain in violation of the temporal sequence of events. Complete amnesia is characterized by the loss of all memories for a certain time interval.

The cause of post-traumatic amnesia can be physical trauma (blow to the head, severe concussion) or psychological trauma associated with tragic events (accident, man-made or climatic disaster, military action), loss of loved ones, intolerable events of violence (physical, emotional or sexual).

For post-traumatic amnesia is characterized by confusion, disorientation in space and time. A person, being in a state of post-traumatic amnesia, may experience excessive anxiety, be in a state of excitement. The intellectual abilities of a person in a state of post-traumatic amnesia may decrease. Suffering from post-traumatic amnesia, a person may not recognize loved ones, himself, experience a feeling of unreality of what is happening to him and the unreality of his environment. In severe cases, post-traumatic amnesia can cause depressive disorders and suicidal tendencies in a person. In addition to psychological discomfort, people with post-traumatic amnesia can suffer from insomnia, impaired appetite, indigestion, headaches, and sexual dysfunctions.

Treatment of post-traumatic amnesia is carried out on the basis of a previously studied history of the patient's life from the words of close people and the medical history with the diagnosis of organic and inorganic changes in the state of the brain. They identify brain and head injuries, investigate the causes of sleep disturbances, diseases of the central nervous system and eliminate factors that can maintain the state of amnesia at the physiological level.

After a neurologist has excluded diseases that affect memory processes, post-traumatic amnesia is treated by a psychiatrist. To restore memory, drugs, hypnosis, conversations with the victim can be used. The process of recovering from amnesia is a very painstaking business that requires high professionalism of the doctor, the participation of loved ones and relatives of the person suffering from post-traumatic amnesia, and the patience of the victim himself.