Emotional stress-induced transient global amnesia with bilateral hippocampal ischemic lesion

Abstract

The paper describes a clinical case of transient global amnesia (TGA) in a male patient who has experienced prolonged stress at work and at home. The middle-aged man was admitted to hospital disoriented, constantly repeating the same questions. The patient did not remember what had happened that morning before his admission to the hospital. Brain magnetic resonance imaging revealed bilateral punctate hippocampal DWI hyperintensity. The patient has not been observed to have risk factors for cerebrovascular events. Neuropsychological examination has shown that the patient does not have adequate strategies to cope with the sequels of long-term intense stress accompanied with emotion suppression. The described case confirms that psychological instability may be one of the precipitating factors for TGA.

Keywords

• transient global amnesia
• stress
• hippocampus