Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2009) 15: 152-158. doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.105.001586
© 2009 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Psychogenic amnesia: when memory complaints are medically unexplained

Gavin C. M. McKay and Michael D. Kopelman

Gavin C. M. McKay was a Specialist Registrar in Neuropsychiatry at the Memory Disorders Clinic at St Thomas’ Hospital. He has obtained his certificate of completion of training and is now a locum consultant in general adult psychiatry, maintaining a special interest in neuropsychiatry. Michael D. Kopelman is Professor of Neuropsychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and Consultant Neuropsychiatrist with the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, based at the Neuropsychiatry and Memory Disorders Clinic at St Thomas’ Hospital, London. Professor Kopelman has published widely on many aspects of memory disorders (including the amnesic syndrome, Alzheimer’s and semantic dementia, confabulation, psychogenic amnesia, amnesia for offences, and false confessions), as well as calculation disorders, sleep disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and neuroimaging.

Correspondence: Correspondence Dr Gavin McKay, Mascalls Park, Mascalls Lane, Brentwood, Essex CM14 5HQ, UK. Email: Gavin{at}doctors.org.uk

The focus of this article is the assessment and management of medically unexplained (‘psychogenic’) amnesia, which we classify here as global or situation specific. Other psychiatric causes for memory disorder and neurological conditions that could cause diagnostic confusion are briefly reviewed, as are forensic aspects of memory complaints. Finally, brain and physiological mechanisms potentially associated with psychogenic amnesia are discussed.