Korsakoff syndrome  Korsakoff syndrome, also called Korsakoff
psychosis, or Korsakoff disease,  neurological disorder
characterized by severe amnesia (memory loss). Many cases result
from severe chronic alcoholism, while others are due to a
variety of brain disorders, severe head injury, or a thiamine
deficiency. Patients with Korsakoff syndrome typically are
unable to remember events in the recent or even the immediate
past, and some can store information for only a few seconds
before they forget it. The patient may also have forgotten a
much longer time period, extending back for as many as 20 years.
Another feature that is sometimes present is confabulation;
i.e., the patient recounts detailed and convincing memories of
events that never happened. Korsakoff syndrome is often a
transient manifestation of some other brain disorder, but some
cases are chronic. In chronic alcoholism, Korsakoff syndrome may
occur in combination with Wernicke disease, which results from a
deficiency of thiamine and is characteri