Inter-Identity Autobiographical Amnesia in Patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder
نویسندگان
چکیده
BACKGROUND A major symptom of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID; formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) is dissociative amnesia, the inability to recall important personal information. Only two case studies have directly addressed autobiographical memory in DID. Both provided evidence suggestive of dissociative amnesia. The aim of the current study was to objectively assess transfer of autobiographical information between identities in a larger sample of DID patients. METHODS Using a concealed information task, we assessed recognition of autobiographical details in an amnesic identity. Eleven DID patients, 27 normal controls, and 23 controls simulating DID participated. Controls and simulators were matched to patients on age, education level, and type of autobiographical memory tested. FINDINGS Although patients subjectively reported amnesia for the autobiographical details included in the task, the results indicated transfer of information between identities. CONCLUSION The results call for a revision of the DID definition. The amnesia criterion should be modified to emphasize its subjective nature.
منابع مشابه
Amnesia for Autobiographical Memory: a Case Series
Functional amnesia for autobiographical memory is a rare but pathognomic sign of dissociative disorders. Amnesia for part of one's personal history is sometimes also seen in other functional disorders like depression and schizophrenia but autobiographical amnesia in these disorders is relatively rar . Phenomenologically the autobiographical memory loss, amnesia for events during the amnestic ep...
متن کاملProcedural memory in dissociative identity disorder: when can inter-identity amnesia be truly established?
In a serial reaction time task, procedural memory was examined in Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Thirty-one DID patients were tested for inter-identity transfer of procedural learning and their memory performance was compared with 25 normal controls and 25 controls instructed to simulate DID. Results of patients seemed to indicate a pattern of inter-identity amnesia. Simulators, however,...
متن کاملDissociative detachment and memory impairment: reversible amnesia or encoding failure?
The authors propose that clinicians endeavor to differentiate between reversible and irreversible memory failures in patients with dissociative symptoms who report "memory gaps" and "lost time." The classic dissociative disorders, such as dissociative amnesia and dissociative identity disorder, entail reversible memory failures associated with encoding experience in altered states. The authors ...
متن کاملA Case of Persistent Generalized Retrograde Autobiographical Amnesia Subsequent to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011
Functional retrograde autobiographical amnesia is often associated with physical and/or psychological trauma. On 11 March 2011, the largest earthquake on record in Japan took place, and subsequent huge tsunami devastated the Pacific coast of northern Japan. This case report describes a patient suffering from retrograde episodic-autobiographical amnesia for whole life, persisting for even more t...
متن کاملPsychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for patients with dissociative identity disorder.
There is a wide variety of what have been called "dissociative disorders," including dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, depersonalization disorder, dissociative identity disorder, and forms of dissociative disorder not otherwise specified. Some of these diagnoses, particularly dissociative identity disorder, are controversial and have been questioned by many clinicians over the years. Th...
متن کامل