how sex and stress made one man lose his memory

8/9/2019 How Sex and Stress Made One Man Lose His Memory

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How sex and stress made one

man lose his memory

By LIZ GILL

Sally Britton remembers exactly when her partner

Andrew Knight lost his memory, because he asked herthe time. And then he asked her again. And again.It happened on a Sunday afternoon at their flat above hiscoffee importing company in Hoxton, North London.

The couple had made love and Andrew, 60, had driftedoff to sleep. 'The next thing I knew he sat up and looked

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around rather oddly,' says Sally. 'He went over to theclock, picked it up and put it down again.'He asked, "What time is it?" I said, "It's 4.30. You've justpicked up the clock, isn't it working?" Ten seconds later

he said it again with the same intonation. I told him,"You've just asked me."I still wasn't alarmed, but when he asked me a third time,I said he was really frightening me and asked him whatwas going on.'He then started to wander round the flat, picking thingsup and staring at them as if he was looking for clues, as if his brain was trying to get information. It was spooky. But

he wasn't upset or agitated. His demeanor was morepuzzled, almost bemused.'Sally called NHS Direct, who advised her to take Andrewto hospital as quickly as possible.'He wasn't in pain and there were no other physicalsymptoms but I was worried that something significanthad happened. All the way there, he was constantlyasking where we were going.'

The couple was seen at the Royal London Hospital inWhite chapel, where the doctors' questions establishedthat Andrew was not laying down any new memories.'He knew who he was and who I was,' says Sally, 45. 'Heknew what his job was and where his home was, but hehad no idea why he was in hospital, how he'd got there,what day it was, or even what year.'



Memory loss: Triggers of transient global amnesia includestrenuous exercise, sex and immersion in cold water -stress may also play a partHe was then given a series of blood and urine tests andhad a physical examination, a brain scan and a lumbarpuncture. Throughout, Andrew kept up his questioning.'He wasn't agitated because for him it was like the firsttime he had asked something,' says Sally. 'The only timehe started to get upset was when he saw how distressed I

was.'Having ruled out a stroke, a heart attack and an epilepticseizure, the doctors were faced with the possibility of encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain usually causedby a virus, but we would have to wait for the results of the lumbar puncture the next day to be sure,' she says.'The doctor then said there was another possibility -transient global amnesia [TGA]. If it was that, it would be

over within 24 hours.'Clinging to that shred of hope, Sally went home beforereturning to the hospital in the morning.'At first, Andrew seemed to be the same, but then I askedhim what he'd had for breakfast and he said cornflakes.

Just saying that word meant he was laying down new



memories. The damage wasn't permanent. It must be TGA. It was the most remarkable eureka moment.'Over the next few hours, Andrew gradually returned tonormal and the doctors discharged him, as he required no

treatment and was no more likely to suffer anotherepisode than anyone else.

TGA affects five in 100,000 people in Britain, rising to 23in 100,000 in the over-50s.'It's quite rare,' says Dr Benjamin Turner, consultantneurologist at Barts and the London Hospitals.'I might see one case a year. The condition has verycharacteristic features: the patient is suddenly unable to

retain any new information. This is known as anterogradeamnesia, as opposed to retrograde amnesia where youforget past events.'Typically, the patient will ask the same thing again andagain every couple of minutes with the same intonation.

They are not usually agitated as they have no recollectionof the questions.'Dr Turner adds: 'A key factor is that the patient has

alteration in the consciousness level, therefore they arealert, can speak normally and move their limbs. They areonly deficient in memory - they can still function, and doroutine tasks.'I had one man who had recently put his car up on bricksin the garage. During an attack of TGA, he tried to driveaway and couldn't work out why the car wouldn't movebecause he had no recollection of taking the wheels off.'

Triggers include strenuous exercise, sex and immersionin cold water. Stress may also play a part.'These might account for 50 per cent of cases, but in therest it seems to happen spontaneously.'We don't really understand the physiology. There may bechanges in the blood supply to the temporal lobe, the



part of the brain that deals with memory, orelectrochemical changes similar to those that causemigraine.'Diagnosis involves eliminating other conditions,

particularly stroke and epilepsy.Around seven per cent of episodes of TGA turn out to beepilepsy. Otherwise, there is no treatment and patientsreturn to normal spontaneously. The frequency of recurrence is low.'While TGA is a harmless condition in itself, if patients dodevelop sudden amnesia they should be assessedmedically. It is important other conditions are excluded,'

says Dr Turner. Today, six months on, Andrew is busy with his business,but he has no recollection of what happened, nor will heever have.He knows, though, that it came at the end of a stressfultime in his business and personal life.'I realized that when I've been through a particularlypressurized time in the past, I've then had a day of

feeling unwell, usually with a terrible headache andvomiting. It might happen on the first day of a holidayand then I'd be fine. Maybe it was a kind of safety valve.'Something like this does make you rethink. I've alwaysbeen very hands-on at work, but I now take a step back.It was like a warning bell.'

how sex and stress made one man lose his memory

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