One of the most common symptoms that someone in PTA will present with is disorientation and confusion.

What are the symptoms of PTA? Disorientation and Confusion: This information leaflet outlines some of the typical symptoms that you may encounter during PTA and strategies to help support someone during this period of time. Therefore, any distress experienced during PTA is often forgotten.Ĭoping with PTA can be a very difficult period of time for family, friends and staff, as many of the behaviours shown can be very distressing or difficult to manage. Once PTA resolves, it is unlikely that your relative / friend will have significant memories of this period of time. The staff team working with your relative / friend will therefore be monitoring this period of PTA to help support them and plan for their future rehabilitation. The length of PTA can help us estimate how severe someone’s injury is and can help us understand the nature of their recovery. For some it can last for minutes, whilst for others it can last for weeks or months. PTA is sometimes also referred to as post traumatic confusional state and can occur from the moment of injury until the return of continuous memory. Post Traumatic Amnesia (PTA) is a transient state of confusion, disorientation and memory loss that occurs immediately following a traumatic brain injury. If after reading it you have any concerns or require further explanation, please discuss this with a member of the healthcare team caring for you. This leaflet has been produced to give you general information about Post-traumatic Amnesia. Need some help choosing a language? Please refer to Browsealoud Supported Voices and Languages. You can translate this page by using the headphones button (bottom left) and then select the globe to change the language of the page.

Traumatic amnesia