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26 years
Does epilepsy cause amnesia by years?
Jun 15, 2015

Dr. Zakia Dimassi Pediatrics
Patients with epilepsy very commonly complain of memory, particularly those who have temporal lobe
epilepsy (TLE) where here is a direct impact on memory-related brain structures by seizure activity. 

The degree of memory impairment associated with TLE has been
shown to correlate a number of variables such as the age of onset of epilepsy,
seizure frequency and lifetime number of seizures. Another important characteristic
in determining to what extent the memory is affected is the laterality of the
seizure focus (meaning if it affects the right versus the left hemisphere of
the brain), as this has influence on the type of material for which memory is
most affected, with left TLE causing more pronounced deficits in verbal memory,
and, less consistently, right TLE affecting non-verbal memory.



Two commonly recognized forms of amnesia associated with TLE
are:



-         
Transient epileptic amnesia
(TEA): the hallmark of this condition is episodes of transient amnesia during
which other intellectual functions remain intact. Patients additionally
complain of prominent memory difficulties in between seizure episodes.



-         
Accelerated long-term
forgetting (ALF): individuals initially have no problem learning and retaining
information, but forget it at an unusually rapid rate over the following days
or weeks.



If you are facing memory problems due to your seizures, you
need to consult a neurologist on the matter.

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