The Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome: a review of psychological, neuropathological and etiological factors.

During the past 10 years numerous investigations concerned with the neuropsychological, neuropathological and etiological factors involved in alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome have been published. The neuropsychological research has focused on the patients' anterograde and retrograde amnesias, and several theories based upon current models of human information processing have been advanced as partial explanations of the amnesic syndrome. While neuropathological investigations have continued to implicate midline diencephalic structures in the chronic symptoms of this disorder, some very recent studies have begun to assess the role of neurotransmitters in the patients' memory disorders. The etiology of the disorder also appears to be more complex than once believed. Animal studies demonstrating the neurotoxicity of alcohol have suggested that the patients' severe memory deficits may be due to an interaction of malnutrition and the toxic effects of alcohol. Behavioral investigations reporting that non-Korsakoff alcoholics have memory deficits qualitatively similar to those of Korsakoff patients support the idea that Korsakoff's syndrome is not acute but may develop slowly during decades of alcohol abuse.