Treatment of patients with psychogenic amnesia with the help of therapeutic anamnesis
Roaldset, J.O.; Christiansen, T.W.
Tidsskrift for den Norske Laegeforening Tidsskrift for Praktisk Medicin Ny Raekke 118(25): 3977-3978
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0029-2001 PMID: 9830345 Document Number: 496058
Psychogenic (dissociative) amnesia is a psychiatric disorder characterised by a sudden loss of memory which is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness, but which has no organic disease or explanation. Psychogenic amnesia is categorised among the dissociative disorders in DSM-IV and ICD-10 and begins suddenly, usually after severe psychosocial stress. The prognosis is good with complete recovery, and there is seldom relapse. This article describes a man, 45 years of age, who developed severe depression and amnesia following a very troublesome divorce. He did not talk, he communicated by signs and gestures, and he isolated himself in his mother's home. After being admitted to a psychiatric ward he became anorectic and developed erosive eoesophagitis/gastroduodenitis. Initially he was given perfenazin (Trilafon) 24 mg/day. The psychiatric treatment produced no results for the first three weeks, but the patient gradually recovered when the therapist and the patient recapitulated the conflicts associated with the divorce, using documents from the patient's lawyer as a guide. This method is called "therapeutic anamnesis" and is similar in many ways to psychiatric treatment of post-traumatic stress reactions.