Treatment
It was once assumed that anyone suffering from Korsakoff's syndrome would eventually need full time care. This is still often the case, but rehabilitation can help regain some, often limited, level of independence. Treatment involves the replacement or supplementation of thiamine by intravenous (IV) or intramuscular (IM) injection, together with proper nutrition and hydration. However, the amnesia and brain damage caused by the disease does not always respond to thiamine replacement therapy. In some cases, drug therapy is recommended. Treatment of the patient requires taking thiamine orally for 3 to 12 months, though only about 20 percent of the cases are reversible. If treatment is successful, improvement will become apparent within two years although recovery is slow and often incomplete.
Treatment for the memory aspect of Korsakoff’s syndrome can also include domain-specific learning, which when used for rehabilitation is called the method of vanishing cues. Such treatments aim to use patients’ intact memory processes as the basis for rehabilitation. Patients who used the method of vanishing cues in therapy were found to learn and retain information more easily.
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