Talk:Korsakoff syndrome

Plain English
Could somebody tell us all, in plain English, what happens when a person has this syndrome? JackofOz 01:44, 15 March 2006 (UTC)


 * You'll find your answer in Symptoms. There are six symptoms there, and this is what happens with a person with this symptom.Lova Falk 09:51, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

If I wasn't atheist, I'd definitely be saying "Amen to that!". Perhaps the answer to the question is lost in those big words, but I've read it a few times and I'm pretty sure it isn't.


 * taken from anterograde amnesia ---  a syndrome...which causes irreversible anterograde amnesia. I hope that is helpful. -User:Damien Vryce

We need a section entitled 'symptoms'. There must be more to this than 'amnesia caused by lack of Vitamin B and too much booze' Reading up on it more, this syndrome apparantly involves difficulties encoding long term memories which forces the sufferer to fill in memory gaps with sensory cues. (See the above link and the page for House episode 10, 'histories') 134.7.77.147 11:34, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Can we have that reference to House and the link again? Someone took it off, but it would help the article's pace if there were a trivia section and say, a notable sufferers section. Julia Rossi 03:40, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Bush and Korsakoff
George W Bush has been suggested to be a victim of this alcoholism disorder.
 * I heard he was the anti-Christ, too. He's not a very popular guy. No need to invent fake reasons to hate him. He is a white male. Isn't that all the reason that you need? He's a conservative. Hate him for that. How many reasons do you people need? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.105.46.93 (talk) 07:05, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

plainer English
How chancy is that - a edit conflict. I relinquished my edit until I see what else is happening. As a journo type I can demystify the text and put it into encyclopedic (rather than medical textbook) language, so if that's okay & no-one objects, I can do that. The other thing is that when you start to simplify it (without losing the nitty gritty, natch) there's a lot of repetitive information in the intro that can be grouped under Causes, say. Another thing is that apart from the Wernicke encephalopathy stuff being closely related to Korsakoff's, any more about Wernicke's could be left to that main article. Does anyone want me to demystify other tech-heavy articles? Not maths though. That's another language. and PS, one of the probs with having so many rarified links, when you go there, you have to follow a number of them to find out what's going on which can be frustrating for 'street level' people so to speak Julia Rossi 03:36, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

PPS - If it's your baby and you want to do the honours, the link at the top of this page, make it more accessible, is very good. Julia Rossi 05:16, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Mixing up two syndromes
In Symptoms, the first two paragraphs are about Korsakoff's. It is followed by a paragraph about Korsakoff's-Wernicke. Then it says: "This disease involves..." Which disease? Korsakoff's or Korsakoff's-Wernicke? Lova Falk 09:55, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Spelling
Why is the article so emphatic that it's is "Korsakoff's" and that "Korsakov's"? I have seen Korsakov's used in numerous professional documents, and this evening I noticed it is the spelling in the Oliver Sacks' chapter mentioned here. Standard scientific transliteration of Cyrillic characters (Scientific_transliteration) would seem to be to change the Cyrillic 'B' in the name to a 'V' not a 'FF'. Elakazal (talk) 03:22, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I also want to know the answer, in Russian his name is "Korsakov", not "Korsakoff". 195.113.149.177 (talk) 12:32, 1 April 2009 (UTC)


 * That's rubbish. In Russian, his name is Сергей Сергеевич Корсаков. There are various systems of transliterating or romanising Russian words into English, and none of them is any more or less intrinsically correct than any other.  As long as you consistently use the same system in the same context, it's all fair game.  Sergei Rachmaninoff is spelt that way because that is the spelling that he himself chose for use in the West.  Do you dare to tell him he was wrong?  --   Jack of Oz   [your turn]  13:12, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

merge proposal
Alcohol amnestic disorder says that "Korsakoff's psychosis" is an older term for that disease. Is that correct? If so, the two should be merged. If not, then that page needs to be cleaned up. Calliopejen1 11:31, 8 July 2007 (UTC)


 * "Korsakoff's syndrome" is the currently accepted term in psychology. Any relevant information should be merged into the article. Absentis 01:15, 9 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Many articles have similar issues. Most solve them by introing (new gerund, sorry) with something to the effect of "Korsakoff's syndrome, also known as Korsakoff's psychosis or alcohol amnestic disorder ... (etc)". We could probably do the same here, and merge all into one article. Then we just need to pick which article will be the main, and which will just redirect. I tend to side with those who say Korsakoff's should be the main article, since it's more familiar to my ears, but there may be an actual protocol that we should follow. (Edit: There is a guideline - see below.) Ante  lan  talk  02:37, 9 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Oh, and to correct myself - The Manual of Style recommends replacement of supplanted eponyms with internationally recognized names - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:MEDMOS . Ante  lan  talk  05:12, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Political slanting concerning thiamine supplements
Someone posted that the problem with Korsakoffs is not the failure to ingest thaimine, but failure to *absorb* thiamine. I know of no evidence that alcoholics have any problem absorbing thiamine. That previous edit offered as a citation the medline reference (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000771.htm) but that reference does NOT say that alcoholics have trouble absorbing thiamine. Rather, it says that sometimes people who have obesity surgery may have trouble absorbing thiamine, and that can lead to Korsakoff's. So I fixed that text to fit what the cited reference actually says.

But I think someone is trying to "spin" the data to argue against thiamine supplementation. As everyone agrees such supplementation could do no harm, this may be an attempt to avoid supplements as if it would encourage people to drink..... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.238.253.212 (talk) 15:40, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Now someone has added that the US mandated thiamine supplements at one time, which did not work. As I know of no evidence this is true, I'm deleting that. If someone wants to add it back, please provide a reference that backs this up. Otherwise, it's probably another politically motivated confabulation to avert supplements. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.238.253.212 (talk) 15:16, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Again, the political slanting of this article at the expense of scientific reasoning, continues. If, as the article says and all authorities agree, thiamine deficiency leads to Korsakoff's in alcoholics, then clearly supplementing alcoholic drinks with thiamine would avert at least SOME cases of Korsakoff's in alcoholics, and conceivably all of them. But the Puritanical urge to punish alcoholics won't even allow this possibility to be mentioned. This is deplorable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.206.107.116 (talk) 19:29, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Centipede bites?
The claim that Korsakoff's syndrome can be caused by "centipede bites in Japan" seems dubious. The [cited paper|http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2022129] is not available publicly, and its abstract makes no mention of Korsakoff's syndrome, merely symptoms local to the bite:

"Five cases of centipede bites are reported. The patients showed erythema in response to swelling, and/or paresis around the sites. They had been bitten by Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans Koch or Scolopendra subspinipes multidens Newport. There was no species-specific reaction to the bite, so the variety of reactions seen was thought to be due to patients' individual differences. Treatment included local anesthesia, systemic and/or topical corticosteroids, and administration of a biscoclaurin alkaloid, as needed according to the severity of the lesions."

On the other hand, it seems TimTak added it in good faith.

--Dbagnall (talk) 22:36, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Korsakoff syndrome to be used instead of Alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome
Is it possible that Korsakoff syndrome to be used instead of Alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome. The reason is that Korsakoff is always alcoholic, non alcoholic is Beriberi, a disease with slight differences. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.63.39.163 (talk) 05:22, 23 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Agree and will move. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 15:12, 21 March 2019 (UTC)