Psychogenic and Organic Amnesia. A Multidimensional Assessment of Clinical, Neuroradiological, Neuropsychological and Psychopathological Features

Abstract

Psychogenic amnesia is a complex disorder characterised by a wide variety of symptoms. Consequently, in a number of cases it is difficult distinguish it from organic memory impairment. The present study reports a new case of global psychogenic amnesia compared with two patients with amnesia underlain by organic brain damage. Our aim was to identify features useful for distinguishing between psychogenic and organic forms of memory impairment. The findings show the usefulness of a multidimensional evaluation of clinical, neuroradiological, neuropsychological and psychopathological aspects, to provide convergent findings useful for differentiating the two forms of memory disorder.

Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the Australasian Society for Cognitive Science

“…Similar to other reports of dissociative memory disorders (Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, & Carlesimo, 2007;Maldonado & Spiegel, 2008), the onset of psychiatric symptomatology in the cases in the present study occurred after a mild traumatic brain injury. Although a biological contribution of the mild traumatic brain injury cannot be completely ruled out (Tramoni et al, 2009), the emergence of psychiatric symptoms in these patients after a seemingly minor physical accident might from a psychological perspective be viewed as a legitimate way of escaping a situation that was perceived as intolerable and inescapable (Kessler et al, 1997).…”

Neuroimaging and Dissociative Disorders

“…In other reports on patients with dissociative amnesia glucose-PET, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) or fMRI, or combinations of several of these methods were used (Sellal, Manning, Seegmuller, Scheiber, & Schoenfelder, 2002, Glisky et al, 2004Botzung, Denkova, & Manning, 2007;Hennig-Fast et al, 2008;Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, & Carlesimo, 2007;Stracciari, Fonti, & Guarino, 2008;Yang et al, 2005;Piolino et al, 2005;Yasuno et al, 2000;Thomas-Antérion, Guedj, Decousous, & Laurent, 2010 ;Arzy, Collette, Wissmeyer, Lazeyras, Kaplan, & Blanke, in press;Kikuchi et al, 2010). In most cases brain metabolic and functional changes were found, which involved areas that are agreed upon to play crucial roles in mnemonic processing.…”

Psychological factors in retrograde amnesia: Self-deception and a broken heart

“…Other case studies of focal retrograde amnesia have also reported preserved performance on various executive tests (Di Renzi, Lucchelli, Muggia, & Spinnler, 1997;Repetto et al, 2007). In contrast, some cases have shown impaired performance on selective executive tests (Fujiwara et al, 2008;Markowitsch et al, 1999;Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, & Carlesimo, 2007). Many others have failed to assess executive functions (Barbarotto, Laiacona, & Cocchini, 1996;Kritchevsky, Chang, & Squire, 2004;Luccheli, Muggia, & Spinnler, 1998;Nakamura et al, 2002;Sellal, Manning, Seegmuller, Scheiber, & Schoenfelder, 2002).…”

“…Kritchevsky, Chang, & Squire, 2004;Markowitsch, 1999), the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) and the Freiburg Personality Inventory-Revised (FPI-R) (Fujiwara et al, 2008), or psychodynamic tests such as the Rorschach and Blacky (Barbarotto, Laiacona, & Cocchini, 1996;Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, & Carlesimo, 2007) and/or clinical interviews (e.g. Lucchelli & Spinnler, 2002;Papagno, 1998).…”

“…Lucchelli & Spinnler, 2002;Papagno, 1998). MMPI results have typically showed abnormal scores on the hypochondriasis, schizophrenia and depression scales (Kritchevsky, Chang, & Squire, 2004;Markowitsch et al, 1999), and psychodynamic tests have suggested histrionic personality traits (Barbarotto, Laiacona, & Cocchini, 1996;Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, & Carlesimo, 2007). Clinical interviews have revealed either no abnormalities (Case 1 & 3 Lucchelli & Spinnler, 2002), psychosocial stressors such as relationship break-ups (e.g.…”