#Case studies of transient epileptic amnesia series
Some clinical features were detected more commonly in the second series than the first, probably as a result of heightened awareness. Seizures ceased with anticonvulsant treatment in 93% of cases. Epileptiform changes were present in 35% of cases, while suspected causative magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities were detected in only 5%. The majority of patients describe at least one of the atypical forms of memory disturbance mentioned above easily provoked tearfulness is a common accompanying feature. Amnesia is the only manifestation of epilepsy in 24% of patients olfactory hallucinations occur in 43%, motor automatisms in 41%, brief unresponsiveness in 39%. Findings in our two cohorts are substantially consistent: The onset of transient epileptic amnesia occurs at an average age of 62 years, giving rise to amnestic episodes at a frequency of around 1/month, typically lasting 15–30 min and often occurring on waking. We describe the clinical and neuropsychological features in 65 consecutive cases of transient epileptic amnesia referred to our study, comparing these to our previous cohort of 50 patients and to those reported in 102 literature cases described since our 2008 review. However, this highly treatment-responsive condition remains under-recognized and undertreated.
Subsequent descriptions have highlighted its association with ‘atypical’ forms of memory disturbance including accelerated long-term forgetting, disproportionate autobiographical amnesia and topographical amnesia. The term transient epileptic amnesia was coined in 1990 to describe a form of epilepsy causing predominantly amnestic seizures which could be confused with episodes of Transient Global Amnesia.
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