What is confabulation - a modern neurological and psychological assessment

Confabulation: "but in my memory such power is hidden that it returns images. .."

We do not know for sure how the childhood of Baron von Munchhausen was, but we perfectly see what happens to children in our present time. These facts lead to sad reflections.

How hard it is for a modern child! How much effort does he make to deserve even the slightest favors of his parents. But parents are still forever unhappy with them and inexorably-hard. ..

About lies and paramnesies, let's say the word

And then, in complete despair, he uses the last trump card - a lie. And all at once it becomes convenient and comfortable - long ago it would be so. A little scary, but - nice, and no one for anything in the answer.

Once upon a time, from the childhood, the era of lies does not go until old age.

But there are among the bulk of ordinary people who use lies to themselves for good, the category of liars of disinterested persons are not always and not completely healthy and sane.

More precisely, their disinterestedness is not entirely unselfish. Although they do not bring any visible benefit to them, in the depths of each of them lies the same childish thirst for love, recognition, desire, admiration for you.

Recognize your value at all costs! Even at the price of a lie. Hunted into the underworld of the soul - the subconscious mind - this thirst creates real miracles with the person.

In particular, with memory.

We are talking about paramnesia, which manifest themselves:

• is cryptomnestic;
• is confabulation;
• is pseudo-reminiscent;
• is falsely recognizable:
• is echognessically;
• is fantastically.

Confabulation: always fresh "version" of the fact!

One of the most curious manifestations of paramnesia is confabulation disorders of memory.

This is the whole "archipelago of islands" - the illusions of memory, where the "moored" personality is waiting for the most incredible mock adventures:

• in the past( ecnosis);
• in the present( mnemonic).

Illusions-adventures can be both created by independent efforts of one's own brain( spontaneous), and unfolded in it, but with someone else's clues or suggestions( induced).They can be delusional, fantastic and even onyric, associated with onyroid or delirium.

The difference is that delusional and onyric illusions are not regulated, because they depend on the pathology of the brain( nervous or psychic), fantastic ones are almost completely "manageable", and even the degree of passion in the game can be either lowered or increased.

The essence of this memory hallucination is "speculation" in the direction of improvement( even "digging" - literally translated from ancient Greek) facts from life that do not give a crumpled personality of rest. Memory refers to them again and again - to return at the present moment of time with a new, latest "revision" of this fact, as much as possible "polished" and to mirror shine, and - beyond recognition.

This happens regardless of the desire of the suffering confabulation - it is a protective process, the driving force of which is the subconscious confidence in its own inferiority and inferiority, a "splinter" that has sat down in the structure of the personality since childhood.

The subconscious desire to prove: "I am good" literally changes the physiology of the brain to pathophysiology with a completely different level of metabolism and energy in it, the material embodiment of which is cerebral circulation.

This same motif can also become the basis for nervous and mental diseases - and then in the form of a confabulation material basis appears, the foundation in the form of:

• Korsakov syndrome;
• paraphrenic symptom complex;
• psychosis of different genesis( organic, intoxicating, infectious);
• onyroid;
• schizophrenia;
• hallucinosis;
• epilepsy.

A different kind of paramnesia: "at the level of hallucination"

From the point of view of psychology, confabulation is similar to "patching holes" in memory - the missing fragments are filled with suitable material, and its reconstruction is performed using information obtained in the present tense.

And this is not only the "mentally ill" that affects a person - they can also be the actions of a healthy person, which they produce throughout their life( they are fully conscious or are unconscious falsification - protection from what disturbs them).

But at the beginning of the century before last the classic psychiatrist L. Kalbaum called the confabulation "hallucinations of remembering", considering them a kind of paramnesia. Where the memory presents the patient completely fictional events that can not be facts of his life, in contrast to the "illusions of remembering" - pseudo-reminiscences, where the events that took place in the life of the patient event are only displaced in memory at a different time.

Both these interpretations are reduced to the concept of "false memories," which often mask the onset of hypnosis or progressive amnesia, where confabulations either fill the "gaps" in the patient's memory, or exist as independent structures.

In addition to the fantastic content with a mass of implausible details that increase the overall mood background, due to paraphrenic syndrome, vascular, senile, traumatic and intoxicating psychoses, confabulation can be a delusional nature( retroactive nonsense) associated with obscuration of consciousness.

Either expansive, reflecting the "great idea": extraordinary, athletic health, intellectual( up to genius) superiority over others, high destiny.

Confabulations can create "influxes" in which confusion occurs - the person is completely lost, disoriented in space and time;as a result of concubulosis, even a disorder of thinking may occur.

Memory hallucinations should not be confused:

• nor with by cryptomnia ( alienation from one's own reality);
• neither with by the echinetic ( with repeated return in false memories to an actual topic);
• neither with fantasies ( irrepressible pathological falsehood).

Modern psychiatry interprets the phenomenon of confabulation precisely as a distortion of memories of time and place of actual events combined with fictitious events and transferring them to another time.

And memory, like a well, is deep. ..

How does the confabulation work and how? Imagination - in response to the "order" of the personality that does not find rest - becoming pathologically creative, carefully "restores" the past, which in the present time manifests itself as a true memory.

The memory is juicy, colorful, with vivid details, based on the iron-clad storyline, while reducing the current, everyday memory may not be too noticeable.

These conditions develop due to the characteristics of the emotional background, increased suggestibility and developed self-hypnosis, pathological rejection of criticism, mental infantilism or due to brain pathology in the form of:

• systemic paraphrenia;
• of Korsakov's syndrome of various etiology;
• delusional forms of schizophrenia;
• psychoses of senile, traumatic, vascular genesis.

With ecnosis memory deceptions associated with vascular or senile dementia, progressive general amnesia, life completely "moves" to the past, there is a loss of understanding of their true age and the realities of the real life situation, with mnemonic character confanbulbs "deceiving" the current memory.

From the syndrome of confusion that is characteristic of the twilight state, amenia, delirium and onyroid, confabulosis differs by the absence of illusions and hallucinations, the preservation of the direct perception of things, phenomena;statements( the plot of them) refers to the past, but not the current time, and they themselves have a bright emotional color and are distinguished by a considerable duration.

Confabulosis can serve as both an "entrance" and an "exit gate," this is either a way out of the twilight state, delirium - or a transition to a psychoorganic syndrome with TBT, malaria, abdominal and typhus.

Diagnosis of

To detect this disorder, it is necessary to monitor a psychiatrist or psychoneurologist, because only close attention of a specialist can reveal absurdities in the behavior and speech of the patient;Confabulosis is diagnosed somewhat easier, because its manifestations are brighter and more expressive.

Since the etiology of confabulation is essential for treatment, a complete examination of the body's condition is performed, including mandatory studies:

• of blood for biochemical composition( including control of the level of sugar and thyroid hormones);
• blood test for oncomarkers and TDP.

From instrumental research methods, the use of:

• EEG or REG( electroencephalography or rheoencephalography);
• UZDG( dopplerography of cerebral vascular bed);
• CT or MRI( computer or magnetic resonance imaging) of the brain.

Depending on the clinical manifestations of the disease, it is useful to involve specialists of other profiles in the diagnostic process: endocrinologists, infectious disease specialists, oncologists.

Strategy and tactics to combat "true lies"

Practice demonstrates that successful treatment of concanbulitis is possible only when the cause of the condition is affected - treating the confabulation themselves is tantamount to firing a cannon on mosquitoes. Those. Treatment is performed for either TBI, or encephalitis, or hypothyroidism, or another basis for the disease.

There can not be a single strategy of treatment, and therefore specific clinical manifestations in each individual patient serve as a guideline.

Given the degree of reactivity of the nervous system, antipsychotic drugs are prescribed - neuroleptics or anxiolytics, taken with the condition of constant monitoring of the CNS condition.

In order to improve the metabolism of nerve cells and cerebral circulation, it is expedient to prescribe drugs that accelerate the passage of an electric pulse through the synaptic clefts of the neuronal zones of the neocortical areas of the brain.

Preparations of the Piracetam class( also called Nootropilum, Piramem, Gabacet, Cerebropan) are taken before meals in the form of tablets( 0.2 g) or capsules( 0.4 g) with a daily dosage of 0.4-0.8 g( for 2-3 admission) for a period of 1.5-2 months.

With existing kidney problems, the patient should regularly check the level of creatinine of the blood. In addition to renal failure, the drug is contraindicated in case of cerebral hemorrhage, and also can lead to the appearance of excess weight, hyperkinesia, allergic skin reactions, sleep disorders, headache and anxiety.

In order to reduce the swelling of the brain tissues and improve their trophism, we also apply a 10% solution of the drug Ceraxon( or Neupilept, Citicolin, Somazine) in a dose of 2 ml three times a day with a course of treatment from 40 to 45 days( dosage for children 1ml).

The drug should not be consumed by hypotension because of the possibility of lowering blood pressure.

To protect the brain from hypoxia and to activate metabolism in its tissues in the treatment of confabulation and confabulosis, it is possible to successfully use pyriditol( otherwise called Neuroxin, Encephabol, Pyrithinum or Bonifen), which is usually prescribed 0.1 g( 1 tablet) three timesduring the day after a meal( with a maximum of a daily dose of 0.6 g).

Side effects from taking Tanakan's non-contraindicated angioprotectant containing the extract of ginkgo biloba, applied 40 mg( one tablet) three times a day, are the possibility of a headache or gastric disorders.

Vitamin A, E, C and group B

will be useful as a symptomatic tool. Balneological procedures( iodine-bromine baths), as well as elements of aeroionotherapy( with the inhalation of ionized air) also make sense.

Preventing this and other problems of

Given that both somatic and neuropsychiatric diseases often acquire a chronic or subacute form, psychosyndromes of organic genesis, and hence their manifestations - of confabulation are cured with great difficulty.

Therefore, prevention of a problem is of great importance, and it is necessary to begin this process from early childhood, with character education and the necessary "immunity" to the complexities of life.

Is this possible with the "greenhouse", "room" maintenance of the child under the unforgiving, permeating constant look of parents, grandparents? The answer is obvious: no.

Too severe education with the imposition on the child of excessive hopes is fraught with a broken fate and mentality in the near future.

As well as the practice of praising with "peeking into the mouth" and "licking" the natural openings of the organism "genius".

Only by holding on to the "golden mean", one can bring up a personality that is resistant to life cataclysms, and, therefore, to prevent mental illness and neurological pathology.