Dissociative Amnesia - Grade: A PDF

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DISSOCIATIVE AMNESIA

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Di s s o c i a t i v eAmne s i a

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2 DISSOCIATIVE AMNESIA Di s s o c i a t i v eAmne s i a An individual with dissociative amnesia forgets autobiographical memory. The individual has gaps in their memory after they have experienced a traumatic event. Females are more affected than males with dissociative amnesia as well younger adults rather than older adults. Episodes can last days or years, and a person may experience several through their lifetime. Genetics is a cause of dissociative amnesia, neurobiological and environmental factors such as sexual abuse, combat, accidents, natural disasters, to name a few. However, rare dissociative fugue can occur in a person leaving them unaware of their prior identity and sometimes take on a new identity; this can last for days, weeks, or even years. Treatment for dissociative amnesia includes talk therapy and DBT therapy (Butcher, Hooley, Mineka, et al. 2017 p 1506). Dissociative amnesia with dissociative fugue--a case report with 1-year followup The single case study is of a 53-year-old male who disappeared for a total of six months and had no prior mental illness or disorders. A co-worker received a call from this male six months after he left, and the man was found in a garden with the same clothes he was wearing the day he disappeared. The man was gaunt feverish. He only remembered his identity when he went to the hospital. The traumatic events that triggered his dissociative amnesia were his wife being admitted into intensive care and having sleepless nights, going to work, and a shortage of funds. The diagnosis in this case study is dissociative amenia and dissociative fugue. The method used was a Mini-Mental Status Examination in which the patient scored a 26/30, a Rorschach test, MRI, and Bender Gestalt test. The patient's findings he had mild brain damage, and the cause of this was unknown. They feel the trigger of the dissociative fugue was due to environmental stressors. The treatment was outpatient therapy for a year and followed up,

3 DISSOCIATIVE AMNESIA showing no further memory losses or relapse. The patient has not been prescribed any medication or follow-up treatment after the years’ time (Chaudhari, Mazumdar, Peste, et al., 2017). A neurostructural biomarker of dissociative amnesia: a hippocampal study in dissociative identity disorder The methods in this study were 75 women, 32 with DID, and 43 matched healthy controls ages 18-60. All went had an MRI of the brain to determine links between dissociative experience scale score, dissociative amnesia, absorption, depersonalization/derealization) and traumatization measures with hippocampal global and subfield volumes (Dimitrova, Dean, Schlumpf, et al., 2021). This was a matched control group study to see the outcome of the MRI. The results found that the 32 women with disassociated amnesia had smaller Hippocampal volumes than the 43 without this disorder. In addition, dissociative amnesia was the only dissociative symptom connected uniquely and significantly with reduced bilateral hippocampal CA1 subfield volumes. Thus, this study proved the link between emotional neglect and dissociated amnesia. The women who suffered from dissociated amnesia had traumatic events in their lifetimes and suffered from emotional neglect as a child (Dimitrova, Dean, Schlumpf, et al., 2021). Natural recovery from long-lasting generalised dissociative amnesia and of cerebral blood flow. This is a single case study of a 40-year-old male with dissociative amnesia. The MRI ruled out organic brain damage in this case, and he was diagnosed, and the dissociative amnesia lasted six years and ten months long. The stress of his employment bought on the disorder. He eventually recovered on his own by starting a new job, and this alone is very rare. The goal of

4 DISSOCIATIVE AMNESIA this study was to see a link between cerebral blood flow and dissociative amnesia. Cerebral blood flow is essential for a brain to remain healthy, which has been linked to dementia in patients. The results were that the cerebral blood flow, while the man had dissociative amnesia, was low, causing the issue, but the flow went back to normal when the man recovered. The researchers are unsure of what happened. The man followed up with outpatient psychotherapy and a neurologist but showed no signs of distress after changing his job (Nobuyuki, Oyanagi, Kako, et al., 2019). Diathesis–Stress Model and Associative Amnesia The Diathesis-stress model focuses on individuals predisposed to disorders such as dissociative amnesia disorder. The focus is on the biological, psychological, or sociocultural causal factors (Butcher, Hooley, Mineka, et al., 2017). Dissociative amnesia has been linked to genetics, as other family members may develop amnesia later in life. However, recent neurobiological studies using applied modern brain imaging techniques suggest that biological mechanisms play a crucial role in this disorder. Also, extreme stressors such as combat, witness to traumatic events, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and natural disasters can cause dissociative amnesia. The individual who has dissociated amnesia loses autobiographical memories and can last hours, a day, a week, or in the worst cases, years (Staniloiu, & Markowitsch. 2012). Treatments and Interventions for Dissociative Amnesia The most vital treatment for dissociative amnesia is to make the person feel safe as they may feel disoriented. Waking up after an episode can be frightening to the person. During the episode, the person cannot remember autobiographical memory but is not scared; that is one of the symptoms of dissociative amnesia. Treatments provided are psychotherapy, Cognitive

5 DISSOCIATIVE AMNESIA behavior therapy, Dialectical behavioral therapy, and hypnosis. To recall memories, Doctors use barbiturates, sodium pentobarbital, and sodium amobarbital. It is essential that once the memories surface for the person to use talk therapy with a therapist to work through them, it may be disturbing. Outpatient therapy is needed to work through the lost time with family members or those close. A person could also develop anxiety or panic, fearing dissociative amnesia could happen again (Butcher, Hooley, Mineka, et al., 2017 p 719). Conclusion Dissociative amnesia is the inability to recall autobiographical memories or events during a specific period of time. During that time, a person is fully functioning just cannot remember specific details. These episodes can last hours, days, weeks, and in extreme cases, years. A person may even live a different life called a dissociative fugue. Dissociative amnesia is caused by a mixture of genetics, biological vulnerabilities, and environmental factors. Treatments can involve medications to recall memories and DBT, CBT, talk therapy, and hypnosis. In addition, some discoveries have found the brain is not getting the cerebral blood pumped in enough during an episode. Dissociative amnesia has also been linked to emotional neglect as a child (Sperandeo, Monda, Messina, et al., 2018). As with all mental health disorders, there are new studies conducted to assist with these disorders.

6 DISSOCIATIVE AMNESIA References Angelica Staniloiu, & Hans J. Markowitsch. (2012). The Remains of the Day in Dissociative Amnesia. Brain Sciences, 2(2), 101–129. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci2020101 Butcher, J. N., Hooley, J. M., Mineka, S., & Nock, M. K. (2017). Abnormal psychology (17th ed.). Pearson Chaudhari, A. P., Mazumdar, K., Peste, S. N., Ramadas, D., & Gaikwad, A. (2017). Dissociative amnesia with dissociative fugue-a case report with 1-year followup. Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences, 6(45), 3559. https://doi.org/10.14260/jemds/2017/766 Dimitrova, L. I., Dean, S. L., Schlumpf, Y. R., Vissia, E. M., Nijenhuis, E. R. S., Chatzi, V., Jäncke, L., Veltman, D. J., Chalavi, S., & Reinders, A. A. T. S. (2021). A neurostructural biomarker of dissociative amnesia: a hippocampal study in dissociative identity disorder. Psychological Medicine, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291721002154 Nobuyuki Mitsui, Yuka Oyanagi, Yuki Kako, & Ichiro Kusumi. (2019). Natural recovery from long-lasting generalised dissociative amnesia and of cerebral blood flow. BMJ Case Reports, 12(12), 1–3. Sperandeo, R., Monda, V., Messina, G., Carotenuto, M., Nelson, M. M., Moretto, E., Leone, E., De Luca, V., Monda, M., & Messina, A. (2018). Brain functional integration: An epidemiologic study on stress-producing dissociative phenomena. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 14, 11-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S146250...