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| |  Recurrent Amnesia During Sex LONDON -- August 5, 1997 -- Sudden bouts of amnesia during periods of physical and emotional stress, including sex, are not that uncommon, reveals a report in the latest issue of Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The condition is known as transient global amnesia, or TGA for short. It is characterised by the sudden development of amnesia, usually accompanied by repetitive questioning, but without any other alteration in consciousness or obvious neurological disturbance, such as epilepsy. Behaviour during an episode is otherwise normal and recovery usually complete within 24 hours. The report cites the case of a man in his sixties who also regularly suffered from migraine. His bouts of amnesia tended to occur only during sexual intercourse, when he would repeatedly ask questions such as "What are we doing?" and "What time of year is it?" He was, however, readily able to recognise his wife, and was aware that he was experiencing difficulties. The bouts of amnesia lasted about 30 to 60 minutes on each occasion, after which he recovered completely, but could not remember having had intercourse, and had only a very sketchy memory of any foreplay. Investigations showed nothing other than an irregular brain signal, which doctors treating him, attributed to migraine. "The fact that a person can repeatedly experience selective amnesia for sexual intercourse, but otherwise function normally during the amnesic period, raises interesting social and medicolegal considerations," comment the authors.
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