Brain damage due to nutritional deficits associated with chronic alcoholism; characterized by severe impairment of short-term memory; patient often resorts to confabulation to compensate for gaps in memory function.
An organic disorder affecting the brain that results in a memory defect in which new information fails to be learned although events from the past are still recalled; disorientation for time and place; and a tendency to invent material to fill memory blanks. The commonest cause of the condition is alcoholism, especially when this has led to deficiency of thiamin (vitamin B1). Large doses of thiamin are given as treatment. The condition often becomes chronic.