Korsakoff syndrome

or Korsakoff psychosis or Korsakoff disease

Neurological disorder marked by severe amnesia despite clear perception and full consciousness, resulting from chronic alcoholism, head injury, brain illness, or thiamin deficiency.

Persons with the syndrome typically cannot remember events in the recent or even immediate past; some retain memories only a few seconds. Longer periods

up to 20 years

may also be forgotten. Confabulation (recounting detailed, convincing "memories" of events that never happened) sometimes coexists with the syndrome, which may be transient or chronic.

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▪ pathology

also called  Korsakoff psychosis , or  Korsakoff disease 

      neurological disorder characterized by severe amnesia (memory loss). Many cases result from severe chronic alcoholism, while others are due to a variety of brain disorders, severe head injury, or a thiamine deficiency. Patients with Korsakoff syndrome typically are unable to remember events in the recent or even the immediate past, and some can store information for only a few seconds before they forget it. The patient may also have forgotten a much longer time period, extending back for as many as 20 years. Another feature that is sometimes present is confabulation; i.e., the patient recounts detailed and convincing memories of events that never happened. Korsakoff syndrome is often a transient manifestation of some other brain disorder, but some cases are chronic. In chronic alcoholism, Korsakoff syndrome may occur in combination with Wernicke disease, which results from a deficiency of thiamine (thiamin) and is characterized by damage to nerves in both the central and peripheral nervous system.

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