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Originally Posted by hamworld05 Could you get amnesia if you hold your breath for longer than 5 minutes or cannot breathe for 5 minutes? |
If you do not breathe for five minutes you, could die or become comatose, and brain damage is likely to occur when the brain has been anoxic for three minutes.
The National Institute for Neurological Disrodfers and Stroke says:
Cerebral hypoxia refers to a condition in which there is a decrease of oxygen supply to the brain even though there is adequate blood flow. Drowning, strangling, choking, suffocation, cardiac arrest, head trauma, carbon monoxide poisoning, and complications of general anesthesia can create conditions that can lead to cerebral hypoxia. Symptoms of mild cerebral hypoxia include inattentiveness, poor judgment, memory loss, and a decrease in motor coordination. Brain cells are extremely sensitive to oxygen deprivation and can begin to die within five minutes after oxygen supply has been cut off. When hypoxia lasts for longer periods of time, it can cause coma, seizures, and even brain death. In brain death, there is no measurable activity in the brain, although cardiovascular function is preserved. Life support is required for respiration.
Treatment depends on the underlying cause of the hypoxia, but basic life-support systems have to be put in place: mechanical ventilation to secure the airway; fluids, blood products, or medications to support blood pressure and heart rate; and medications to suppress seizures.
Recovery depends on how long the brain has been deprived of oxygen and how much brain damage has occurred, although carbon monoxide poisoning can cause brain damage days to weeks after the event. Most people who make a full recovery have only been briefly unconscious. The longer someone is unconscious, the higher the chances of death or brain death and the lower the chances of a meaningful recovery. During recovery, psychological and neurological abnormalities such as amnesia, personality regression, hallucinations, memory loss, and muscle spasms and twitches may appear, persist, and then resolve.
The Medical College of Wisconsin says:
Specifically, anoxia is a condition in which there is an absence of oxygen supply to an organ's tissues although there is adequate blood flow to the tissue. Hypoxia is a condition in which there is a decrease of oxygen to the tissue in spite of adequate blood flow to the tissue. Anoxia and hypoxia, however, are often used interchangeably -- without regard to their specific meanings -- to describe a condition that occurs in an organ when there is a diminished supply of oxygen to the organ's tissues.
Anoxia and hypoxia may be caused by a number of events, such as smoke or carbon monoxide inhalation, high altitude exposure, strangulation, anesthetic accidents, or poisoning. In severe cases of anoxia and hypoxia, from any cause, the patient is often stuperous or comatose (in a state of unconsciousness) for periods ranging from hours to days, weeks, or months. Seizures, myoclonic jerks (muscle spasms or twitches), and neck stiffness may occur.
Some problems seen after anoxia include mental confusion, personality changes,
amnesia or other types of memory loss, hallucinations, and persistent myoclonus.
Other possible causes of amnesia include:
* Aging
* Alzheimer's disease
* Neurodegenerative illness
* Head trauma or injury
* Hysteria - including fugues - often accompanied by confusion
* Seizures - epileptic, or Jacksonian
* General anesthetics such as halothane, isoflurane, and fentanyl
* Alcoholism
* Stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA)
* Transient global amnesia
* Drugs such as barbiturates or benzodiazepines
* Electroconvulsive therapy (especially if prolonged)
* Temporal lobe brain surgery
* Brain masses (caused by tumors or infection)
* Herpes encephalitis
* Other brain infections
* Depression
I hope this is helpful. If you need further information or have other questions on this subject, please feel free to ask.
M
RGANITE
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Originally Posted by hamworld05 WOW! I didn't know that! Can selective amnesia occur if you cannot breathe (anoxia) for 5 minutes or have a reduced oxygen supply (hypoxia) for 5 minutes? |
"Selective Amnesia" does not occur in either anoxia or hypoxia. It is a horse of a different feather.
"Selective Amnesia" is amnesia about particular events that is very convenient for the person who cannot remember; "why do politicians always develop selective amnesia when questioned about their transgressions?" It is not a medical or psychological condition. Cheating husbands and wives are prone to fall victim to it, but only because they choose to forget what they want to forget and remember what they want to remember. It is a pretext.
M
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Originally Posted by hamworld05 OK. I heard that traumatic experiences can cause amnesia. Is this true? |
Yes, it is quite true. Trauma-induced dissociative amnesia was initially reported in World War I studies of war trauma. It has similarity to contemporary findings of dissociative amnesia in victims of childhood sexual abuse. It has been demonstrated that posttraumatic amnesia extends beyond the experience of sexual and combat trauma and is a protean symptom, which reflects responses to the gamut of traumatic events.
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