[Transitory global amnesia--psychogenic origin of organic disease? Psychopathologic basis and pathogenetic...

Transient global amnesia (TGA) is an acute amnestic syndrome without neurological symptoms and remitting spontaneously. Though cerebral ischemia, epilepsy, and migraine have been implicated in some cases, non of these factors could be proven responsible for most, and etiology remains unclear. Of special interest is the induction of TGA by psychological and emotional stress in about 14-29% of all cases, which is illustrated by the clinical example of a 72-year-old women who suffered an attack of TGA after discovering a burglary in her home. Psychopathological and pathogenetic aspects are discussed in the context of recent neurobiological memory research. This suggests that TGA involves transient dysfunction of a specific memory subsystem associated with hippocampal structures. Neural network modelling explains the syndrome of TGA on a pathogenetic basis allowing for heterogeneous etiology and even for psychogenic release. Thus TGA serves as a model for pathogenetic explanation in the neuro-psychiatric borderland.