In dissociative amnesia, in contrast to these other conditions, the patient’s memory loss is almost always anterograde, which means that it is limited to the period following the traumatic event (s). Amnesia associated with substance abuse, which is sometimes called a “blackout,” typically affects only short-term memory and is irreversible. Amnesia in patients with delirium or dementia occurs in the context of extensive disturbances of the patient’s cognition (knowing), speech, perceptions, emotions, and behaviors. The amnesia that is associated with seizure disorders is sudden onset. Amnesia associated with head trauma is typically both retrograde (the patient has no memory of events shortly before the head injury) and anterograde (the patient has no memory of events after the injury). Dissociative amnesia was formerly called “psychogenic amnesia.”Īmnesia is a symptom of other medical and mental disorders however, the patterns of amnesia differ depending on the cause of the disorder. The information that is lost to the patient’s memory is usually too extensive to be attributed to ordinary absentmindedness or forgetfulness related to aging. Patients with dissociative amnesia have recurrent episodes in which they forget important personal information or events, usually connected with trauma or severe stress. In dissociative amnesia, the continuity of the patient’s memory is disrupted. The dissociative disorders are usually associated with trauma in the recent or distant past, or with an intense internal conflict that forces the mind to separate incompatible or unacceptable knowledge, information, or feelings. Dissociative amnesia is classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, text revision (also known as the DSM-IV-TR), as one of the dissociative disorders, which are mental disorders in which the normally well-integrated functions of memory, identity, perception, or consciousness are separated (dissociated).
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