Generalized dissociative amnesia

Is dissociative amnesia different from simple amnesia? What are some famous people with dissociative amnesia? When does dissociative amnesia occur? How is dissociative identity disorder diagnosed?

To view the entire topic, please sign in or purchase a subscription. Most patients diagnosed with dissociative amnesia have either localized or selective amnesia.

Generalized amnesia is extremely rare. In the case of dissociative. The patient suddenly cannot recall important personal information and may wander about without purpose and in a confused state.

The memory loss is rarely complete and more commonly includes specific time periods, events, or people. Dissociative amnesia is a mental illness that is characterized by unusual memory loss related to a traumatic experience. It is usually caused by trauma or stress.

Diagnosis is based on history after ruling out other causes of amnesia. The frequency of dissociative amnesia tends to increase during stressful or traumatic periods, such as during wartime or after a natural.

The three common types of dissociative amnesia are localized amnesia, selective amnesia (which may occur along with localized amnesia), and generalized amnesia. Cannot remember recent events, or those earlier in life. Continuous dissociative amnesia. Hart O(1), Nijenhuis E. These are summarized in this concise article.

Learn about various types, how it presents, and what treatment. Psychogenic amnesia or dissociative amnesia is a memory disorder characterized by sudden retrograde episodic memory loss, said to occur for a period of time ranging from hours to years. More recently, dissociative amnesia has been defined as a dissociative disorder characterized by retrospectively reported memory gaps.

The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. Selective amnesia is when a person forgets something specific, like one person or their own identity. In rare cases, a fugue state is associated with dissociative amnesia. This is rare and causes a complete loss of memory of one’s personal identity and history. Some people will regain their memories after a few minutes or a few hours.

Others may forget for days, weeks, or months. When the dissociative amnesia is associated with confused and bewildered wandering or a journey of some sort, it is known as dissociative amnesia with fugue. Symptoms — ranging from amnesia to alternate identities — depend in part on the type of dissociative disorder you have. Times of stress can temporarily worsen symptoms, making them more obvious.

That is, many people who have dissociative amnesia may also abuse drugs or alcohol.

Drug and alcohol abuse not only increases the likelihood of developing a co-occurring or comorbid substance use disorder, but it can exacerbate the symptoms of dissociative amnesia. This phenomena is not unique to dissociative amnesia.