Psychiatry Basics – 69825

All are features of Korsakoff syndrome except

A. Antegrade amnesia

B. Retrograde amnesia

C. Ataxia

D. Confabulation

Show Answer

Correct Answer » C Explanation

Ans. ‘C’ i.e., Ataxia

Korsakoff syndrome

• Korsakoff’s syndrome is the chronic amnestic syndrome that follows Wernicke’s encephalopathy, and the two syndromes are believed to be pathophysiologically related. Korsakoff’s syndrome is characterized by severe and irreversible memory impairments and confabulation behaviour in the absence of intellectual decline or attention deficit. Important clinical features are:‑

1. Memory:- The Korsakoff syndrome is characterized by both antegrade (i.e., learning) and retrograde (i.e., a memory of past events) amnesia. Antegrade amnesia is severe with a lack of insight. Retrograde amnesia is not as severe. New learning and recent memory are impaired but remote memory is relatively preserved. Although remote memory is relatively preserved, the patient is unable to organize them in a temporal context and distort the relationship between facts and fill the remote memory gaps by confabulation. There is a profound deficit of explicit (conscious or declarative) type of long term memory, with little impairment of implicit (unconscious or non-declarative) type of long term memory.
2. Personality:- Passive and malleable such that they display a lack of initiatives, interest, or concern and diminished spontaneity.
3. Other:- Perseveration, lack of motivation (amotivational syndrome), apathy, passivity.
4. General intelligence, language, and motor & perceptual skills are not impaired.