Over a Century of Study and Still Misunderstood: Recognizing the Spectrum of Acute and Chronic Wernicke–Korsakoff Syndrome

Abstract

The aim of this study was to objectively evaluate the hypothesis that the neuropsychological presentation of Korsakoff’s syndrome, the chronic phase of Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome (WKS), is invariably a severe, selective amnesia against a background of relatively preserved general intellectual functions in a consecutive clinical sample. An analysis of the neuropsychological profiles of nine cases with a recorded history of WKS was undertaken. All cases were adult males (ages 32 to 70) with a long history of alcohol use disorder. Eight cases were chosen retrospectively on a consecutive basis from patient referrals. One additional case was recruited prospectively. Conventional understanding an..