TRANSIENT GLOBAL AMNESIA AND FUNCTIONAL RETROGRADE-AMNESIA - CONTRASTING EXAMPLES OF EPISODIC MEMORY LOSS

We studied 11 patients with transient global amnesia (TGA) and ten pat ients with functional retrograde amnesia (FRA). Patients with TGA had a uniform clinical picture: a severe, relatively isolated amnesic synd rome that started suddenly, persisted for 4-12 h, and then gradually i mproved to essentially normal over the next 12-24 h. During the episod e, the patients had severe anterograde amnesia for verbal and non-verb al material and retrograde amnesia that typically covered at least two decades. Thirty hours to 42 days after the episode, the patients had recovered completely and performed normally on tests of anterograde an d retrograde amnesia. By contrast, patients with FRA had a sudden onse t of memory problems that were characterized by severe retrograde amne sia without associated anterograde amnesia and with a clinical present ation that otherwise varied considerably. The episodes persisted from several weeks to more than two years, and some of the patients had not recovered at the time of our last contact with them. The uniform clin ical picture of TGA and the variable clinical picture of FRA presumabl y reflect their respective neurologic ('organic') and psychogenic ('no n-organic') aetiologies.