Alcohol-induced memory loss

Drugs employed have sedative or hypnotic properties with a rapid onset and induce memory loss during the period when the drug is active. The most-prevalent drugs detected, apart from alcohol, are the benzodiazepines and h5 notics (zolpidem and zopiclone). A wide range of other drugs, such as GHB, ketamine, sildenafil, methadone, buprenorphine, diphenhydramine, trimeprazine, acepromazine, thiopental, pentobarb, doxylamine, and cyamemazine, have also been reported in DFC cases. 

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome results from alcohol-induced thiamin deficiency. It affects the central nervous system. The patients suffer from irreversible memory loss as a result of severe mesencephalic lesions. 

Yashima and co-workers reported the memory of macromolecular helicity of poly((4-carboxyphenyl)acetylene) (poly-98). Poly-98 itself possesses a large number of short helical units with many helix-reversal points, and is therefore achiral. However, in the presence of optically active amine 99, which can interact with the polymer s carboxyl groups, one-handed macromolecular helicity is induced in the polymer. When achiral amino alcohol 100 is added to the helical complex, chiral amine 99 bound to poly-98 is replaced by stronger base 100. Nevertheless, the newly formed complex still shows a one-handed helical conformation. Even after the removal of 99 by gel permeation chromatography, the poly-98-100 complex retains a one-handed helical conformation without a loss of helical intensity. Thus the helicity of poly-98 induced by complexation with a chiral amine was memorized after replacement by an achiral one. The half-life of the chiral memory is as long as four years at room temperature.48... 

---