Transient epileptic amnesia complex syndrome

Katsuyuki Ukai^1）2）, Masumi Ito^3）, Masako Watanabe^4）

^1）Department of Psychogeriatrics, Kamiiida Daiichi General Hospital
^2）Department of Psychiatry, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine
^3）Jozen Clinic
^4）Shinjuku Neuro Clinic

Transient epileptic amnesia （TEA） is a special type of temporal lobe epilepsy, whose main symptom is amnesia attacks. Since two types of memory disorders;i.e., accelerated long-term forgetting （ALF） and autobiographical amnesia （AbA）, develop at high frequencies in patients with TEA, this condition is often called TEA syndrome. We discuss our hypothesis regarding the pathological mechanisms underlying these symptoms and suggest that amnesia attacks are simple partial seizures. Some cases present with ALF/AbA without amnesia attacks, and these special cases are referred to as “broad TEA” （or “transient epileptic amnesia complex syndrome”）, in order to prevent them from being overlooked. There are also a few case reports that suggest that ALF/AbA are prodromal symptoms of TEA. It is possible that 1） continual interictal neuronal epileptiform discharges can cause clinical symptoms, and 2） both Alzheimer’s and Lewy body pathology can cause epileptic diseases.
Key words:Transient epileptic amnesia, Amnesia attack, Accelerated long-term forgetting, Autobiographical amnesia, Lewy body disease

Address correspondence to Dr. Katsuyuki Ukai, MD, PhD, Department of Psychogeriatrics, Kamiiida Daiichi General Hospital （2-70 Kamiiida-kitamachi, Kita-ku, Nagoya 462-0802, Japan）