Anosognosia what is, causes and how to address it

It may happen that a person is not able to recognize and inform about having a neurological or neuropsychological deficit, since he is not really aware of his disease state. Instead, he states, in good faith, the firm conviction that he still has the abilities that he has actually lost objectively as a result of a brain injury.

The loss that is absolutely safe from the scientific point of view, but, in these cases, this person could discover that he suffers from Anosognosia, a disorder that we will deepen precisely in this Psychology-online article, seeing What is anosognosia, its causes and how to address it.

1. What is anosognosia
2. Types of Anosognosia
3. Anosognosia symptoms
4. CAUSES OF ANOSOGNOSIA
5. How to address anosoagnosia

What is anosognosia

From a historical point of view, the first descriptions of low disease awareness can be traced to the 19th century. However, you have to wait for the work of Babinksi (1914) to find for the first time the term anosoagnosia. This was used to specifically indicate the lack of knowledge of a deficit sensory.

At present, the definition of anosognosia is as follows: condition of a person who suffers a brain injury as a result of which is not able to detect the presence, o Realistic evaluating, gravity of sensory, motors, affective or cognitive deficits, On the other hand, it should be noted that these deficits are evident to doctors and family members.

Anosognosia is a Selective disorder, For example, a hemiplegic patient can be anosognious with respect to only one of the paralyzed members. The study of anosognosia suggests that consciousness is not a monolithic cognitive process and over -ordering with respect to the various brain functions, but that, on the contrary, it could result from the integration of different modules with different domains.

Types of Anosognosia

People with Anosognosia can manifest it in different ways. Let's see what are the types of anosoagnosia:

• Verbal Anosognosia: verbal denial of hemiplegia.
• Behavior Anosognosia: There is a lack of recognition of the paralyzed side in behavior. Particular phenomena such as somatophrenia are also observed, or conviction that the paralyzed member himself belongs to another person, and the personification of the paralyzed member, or when hisero designates his members with diminutives and proper names.

Anosognosia symptoms

The anosognostic patient has certain concrete features. Let's see what are the symptoms of anosoagnosia:

• Inability to recognize and inform your status of illness.
• Manifestation of the firm conviction of still possessing capacities, motor or cognitive, which has actually lost as a result of a brain injury.
• If compared to their deficits, the patient makes comparisons, that is, offers absurd and incoherent explanations with reality of the facts.

CAUSES OF ANOSOGNOSIA

Anosognosia must be distinguished from those cases in which there are important deficits, or a notable and generalized disturbance, of intellectual functions. ¿What parts of the brain affect anosoagnosia? Produces parietoccipital or talamic injuries In the non -dominant hemisphere. The conscientious deficit can manifest itself in the absence of specific disorders, that is, the other critical abilities of the patients are intact.

Anosognosia is a very complex phenomenon, not yet clearly understood by medicine and psychology. On the one hand, it can be difficult to understand the disease. On the other hand, these relationships directly connect a high -level cognitive phenomenon, such as consciousness, with disorders that are usually organic in nature.

Let's see what are the causes of anosoagnosia from different theories:

• According to neurobiology: Some authors suggest that a copy of incoming information, that is, a perception, is sent directly to a center of consciousness. Despite the fact that the perception is not really processed by the injured brain zone, the patient would react as if he were.
• According to Antonio Damasio: Patients would be impossible for brain damage to access current body contributions and depend on representations of the state of the pre -orboso organism. His theory is explanatory for anosognosia and anosodiaphory, but also for the inappropriate affectivity of the condition that is observed in patients.
• From the psychodynamic point of view: According to this hypothesis, one of the causes of anosognosia would be a defense mechanism that would go into play to preserve the patient. However, it does not have hemispheric asymmetry, for which neurological disorder with anosoagnosia is more often associated with right lesions and rarely with left lesions. In addition, it does not explain the selectivity of anosognosia.

How to address anosoagnosia

¿How to cure anosoagnosia? The recovery of this deficit can occur spontaneously or by rehabilitation, hindered by the fact that the patient with anosognosia is less motivated to recover deficits that he does not recognize, so patients are aware of the disease and their deficits.

In other cases, anosoagnosia does not recover, or only surpasses superficially. However, the presence of Anosognosia has a negative prognostic value and can interfere with rehabilitation treatments.

To address anosoagnosia, individuals who work with people who can present anosognosia should know the complexities involved and give adequate therapeutic importance. First, the existence of a cognitive, emotional or behavioral deficit must be demonstrated and, only later, use several measures to estimate possible consciousness disorders for their disorders.

Finally, it must be stressed that the awareness of a deficit and that of the consequences associated with it can dissociate in the patient and, therefore, must be evaluated separately for the various disorders.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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