Please tell me about post traumatic amnesia – how long does PTA last?
Post traumatic amnesia refers to a disruption in the memory system of the brain as a result of an injury. PTA begins at the time of the injury and includes the coma period. It does not end until the individual is able to continuously report events that have occurred. In other words, a person may be out of coma and talking with their family members but has no recall of the conversations. This individual is still experiencing PTA. As a general rule of thumb, PTA usually lasts 4 times the length of coma. So an individual who is in a coma for two weeks typically experiences PTA of eight weeks. As an individual recovers from the injury, he/she will begin to remember events of the day and days before. However, the person will have no memory of the events immediately following the injury. This is not due to psychological trauma, but the neurological injury itself. The inability to remember hours, days or weeks of your life can be stressful and uncomfortable. Reassuring the individual repeatin
