Dissociative amnesia

Dissociative amnesia
Other namesPsychogenic amnesia
Brain-imaging data from two patients with dissociative amnesia
SpecialtyPsychiatry
SymptomsMemory loss[1]

Dissociative amnesia or psychogenic amnesia is a dissociative disorder "characterized by retrospectively reported memory gaps. These gaps involve an inability to recall personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature."[1] In a change from the DSM-IV to the DSM-5, dissociative fugue is now subsumed under dissociative amnesia.[2]

Dissociative amnesia was previously known as psychogenic amnesia, a memory disorder, which was characterized by sudden retrograde episodic memory loss, said to occur for a period of time ranging from hours to years to decades.[3]

The atypical clinical syndrome of the memory disorder (as opposed to organic amnesia) is that a person with psychogenic amnesia is profoundly unable to remember personal information about themselves; there is a lack of conscious self-knowledge which affects even simple self-knowledge, such as who they are.[4] Psychogenic amnesia is distinguished from organic amnesia in that it is supposed to result from a nonorganic cause: no structural brain damage should be evident but some form of psychological stress should precipitate the amnesia.[5] Psychogenic amnesia as a memory disorder is controversial.[6]

  1. ^ a b Leong S, Waits W, Diebold C (January 2006). "Dissociative Amnesia and DSM-IV-TR Cluster C Personality Traits". Psychiatry (Edgmont). 3 (1): 51–5. PMC 2990548. PMID 21103150.
  2. ^ American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
  3. ^ Arzy, S.; Collette, S.; Wissmeyere, M.; Lazeyras, F.; Kaplan, P. W. & Blank, O. (2001). "Psychogenic amnesia and self-identity: a multimodal functional investigation". European Journal of Neurology. 18 (12): 1422–1425. doi:10.1111/j.1468-1331.2011.03423.x. PMID 21554495. S2CID 16572714. Archived from the original on 12 July 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  4. ^ Serraa, L.; Faddaa, L.; Buccionea, I.; Caltagironea, C. & Carlesimoa, G. A. (2007). "Psychogenic and organic amnesia. A multidimensional assessment of clinical, neuroradiological, neuropsychological and psychopathological features". Behavioural Neurology. 18 (1): 53–64. doi:10.1155/2007/193140. PMC 5469968. PMID 17297220.
  5. ^ Markowitsch, H. J.; Fink, G. R.; Thone, A.; Kessler, J.; Heiss, W-D. (1997). "A PET study of persistent psycogenic amnesia covering the whole life span". Cognitive Neuropsychiatry. 2 (2): 135–158. doi:10.1080/135468097396379. PMID 25420201.
  6. ^ Lucchelli, F.; Spinnler, H. (2003). "The "psychogenic" versus "organic" conundrum of pure retrograde amnesia: Is it still worth pursuing?". Cortex. 38 (4): 665–669. doi:10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70033-9. PMID 12465679. S2CID 4482377.