Dissociative (psychogenic) amnesia. Clinical description, epidemiology, etiological hypotheses, diagnostical-therapeutical approaches

The dissociative amnesia is included in the category of dissociative disorders characterized by the loss of the whole perception of self as well as by differentiated and separated behavior of a part of self. Specifically in DSM-IV the dissociative-psychogenic in DSM-lll-R-amnesia is marked by the sudden incapability of recalling information, without any neurological cause usually following a stress-causing event. Diagnostically it is a particular psychiatric disease though symptoms of dissociative amnesia can be traced to other psychiatric diseases and therefore in this article diagnostical criteria and issues of differential diagnosis are mentioned. This disease is examined through various hypotheses of different theoretical basis and there is also extensive report on the diagnostical means such as specifically structured clinical interviews and dissociative experience scales which are quite helpful to the assessment of disease. Moreover various types of clinical treatments such as the pharmaceutical ones, the supporting ones the supporting ones and the psychodynamical ones with use of hypnosis are suggested. The grave lowering of the activities of these patients from a personal, professional and  social aspect makes further knowledge and research into this disease most sigders, dissociative futique nificant, which is the aim of this study.

Keywords: Dissociative amnesia, psychogenic amnesia, dissociative disorders, dissociative futique