TEA and Other Transient Amnestic Syndromes
TEA is, at first, a challenge to distinguish its salient features during the event from Transient global amnesia and psychogenic amnesia, though other forms of transient amnesia can include reactions to various medications, closed head injury, and migraine. (Other sources of amnestic symptoms include herpes encephalitis, hypoxia, vascular or basal forebrain lesions, deep midline tumors, early dementia, and Korsakoff syndrome which is secondary to thiamine deficiency, most often the result of alcohol abuse.)
"The anatomical and pathophysiological basis of TEA is presumed to be similar to transient global amnesia (TGA), that is, it is likely to be primarily hippocampal in origin, but with more variable involvement of limbic and adjacent temporal lobe neocortical structures."
| Typical presentation | TEA | TGA |
|---|---|---|
| Age at onset | early 60's | early 60's |
| Gender | 67% male | 46% male |
| Precipitating factors | 70%:sleep/waking | 80%: stress, exercise, cold water |
| History | epilepsy | migraine |
| Procedural memory | intact | intact |
| Recognizes family, home | usually | yes |
| Duration | 1–60 minutes | 2–8 hours |
| EEG | during: abnormal after: 40%+abnormal |
during: normal after: 7% develop epilepsy |
| Other occasional symptoms | brief unresponsiveness | nausea, headache |
| Autonomic actions | Yes (40%) | no |
| Degree of amnesia of event | 44% have partial recall | no recall |
| Personal identity | intact | intact |
| Persistent memory loss | 80%+: ALF autobiographical amnesia topographical amnesia |
30%+: ALF autobiographical amnesia . |
| Hallucination | 42%: olfactory and gustatory | no |
| Treatment | anticonvulsant medication | none |
| Recurrence | 12-13/year | rare |
Read more about this topic: Transient Epileptic Amnesia
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