Dissociative Amnesia Disorder
Dissociative amnesia or psychogenic amnesia, is a disorder in which the brain is not able to carry out the normal day to day functioning of memory, perception and identity. In other words, the consciousness of the person suffering from this disorder gets completely dissociated. The disorder is usually caused by some trauma in the person’s past. This trauma usually causes intense conflict internally. The mind is inadvertently forced to stop accepting knowledge, feelings or even information that is upsetting. Also the person’s memory becomes discontinuous. The patient forgets information that is intimately related to them. This forgetfulness has nothing to do with being absentminded. The memory just fails to connect information properly.
Amnesia can often be a symptom of other medical conditions; however it is generally associated with trauma or injury to the head. In such a case, the patient is unable to recall events that occurred shortly before the injury to those that occurred shortly after. Amnesia is also associated with substance abuse, seizures and dementia. However in all these disorders, the amnesia is usually reversible and short term. In dissociative amnesia, the memory loss follows the trauma or is anterograde. The patient has no recollection of the events that occur after the injury or trauma. Patients of dissociative amnesia have shown absolutely no problems in acquiring new information or learning new things.
The patients cannot recollect their entire personal history. Their personal history has a lot of gaps which they are unable to fill because their memory fails them. What is interesting though is that these gaps are almost always associated with severe trauma, abuse or unpleasantness that one would not want to remember or think about.
Patterns of Amnesia:
Localized amnesia: The patient is unable to recall the events that occurred in a limited period of time immediately following the injury of trauma.
Selective amnesia: The patient is able to recall some details of a particular period, however the mind blocks other explicit details of events that are traumatic or unpleasant.
Generalized Amnesia: This is a kind of amnesia where the person has absolutely no recollection of their entire life. They have no sense of identity and are completely lost.
Continuous Amnesia: If the patient has suffered several traumatic events, one of them triggers dissociation and after that the patient is not able to recall anything from the traumatic event to the present.
Systematized Amnesia: In this type of amnesia, the patient is unable to recall any memories related to a certain person or event or location. The rest of their memories come easily to the patient.
Treatment for dissociative amnesia
The treatment for dissociative amnesia consists of psychotherapy along with continuous medication. The therapist tries to make the patient feel safe by creating an environment where the patient doesn’t feel threatened. When they feel safe, the patients usually regain their memories. However it doesn’t mean that all patients recover from the therapy. Many in fact are able to recall independently without the therapist’s suggestion, when left alone with close friends or family. Along with the therapy, the patients are prescribed anti-depressants to cure depression or other neurotic problems.
