A woman lost in the cemetery: A case of time-limited amnesia.
A 43-year-old woman one day experienced a dissociative fugue which she could not recall. She was married, nulliparous, with no history of dissociative disorder or other psychiatric disorders. She had been sexually abused during late childhood-early adolescence. She was examined thoroughly from both psychiatric and medical standpoints to exclude organic causes for her condition. Magnetic Resonance Imaging showed only some non-specific abnormalities. On personality tests, a histrionic structure of personality emerged, with obsessive and narcissistic traits accompanied by rigidity and anxiety, dysphoria and high risk for depression; some impairment was found in executive function tests. Final diagnosis was one of dissociative fugue. In fact, organic traits were not sufficient to establish a diagnosis of Transient Global Amnesia.
Comparelli
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A
Department of Neurosciences, Sapienza University - Rome, 2nd Medical School, Unit of Psychiatry, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Rome, Italy. anna.comparelli@uniroma1.it
De Carolis
A
A
Kotzalidis
G D
GD
Masillo
A
A
Ferracuti
S
S
Tatarelli
R
R
D000328:Adult; D020236:Amnesia, Transient Global / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010554:Personality Disorders; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales