dissociative fugue

Dissociative fugue is a rare disorder which has been described as sudden, unexpected, travel away from home or one's customary place of daily activities, with the inability to recall some or all of one's past. There is no systematic data existing on it and very few cases reported in the literature. Here we report a case of fugue in a young adult male who travelled 8 times away from his home during last 1½ year. He has a loss of memory for episodes with patchy recall of few events. Longest duration of fugue episode was of 1-month...

Despite widespread awareness of their frequent co-occurrence, little is known about treatment of individuals with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dissociative disorders. Patients with dissociative disorders do not respond well to standard exposure therapy, and few psychopharmacologic trials exist. Fluoxetine proved ineffective for depersonalization disorder, but paroxetine showed efficacy in decreasing dissociative symptoms in PTSD patients.

It has been claimed that the progress of psychiatry has lagged behind that of other medical disciplines over the last few decades. This may suggest the need for innovative thinking and research in psychiatry, which should consider neglected areas as topics of interest in light of the potential progress which might be made in this regard. This review is concerned with one such field of psychiatry: dissociation and dissociative disorders. Dissociation is the ultimate form of human response to chronic developmental stress, because patients with dissociative disorders report the highest frequency of childhood abuse and/or neglect among all psychiatric disorders...

The phenomenology of dissociative disorders may be complex and sometimes confusing. We describe here two cases who were initially misdiagnosed. The first case concerned a 61 year-old woman, who was initially diagnosed as an isolated dissociative fugue and was actually suffering from severe major depressive episode. The second case concerned a 55 year-old man, who was suffering from type I bipolar disorder and polyvascular disease, and was initially diagnosed as dissociative fugue in a mooddestabilization context, while it was finally a stroke...

Dissociative fugue refers to loss of personal identity, often with the associated loss of memories of events (general amnesia). Here we report on the psychological assessment of a 54-year-old woman with loss of identity and memories of 33 years of her life attributed to dissociative fugue, along with a follow-up 11 years later. Significant levels of personal injury and stress preceded the onset of the amnesia. A detailed neuropsychological assessment was completed at a university psychology clinic, with a follow-up assessment there about 11 years later with an intent to determine whether changes in her cognitive status were associated with better recall of her life and with her emotional state...

Depersonalization/derealization disorder is characterized by depersonalization often co-occurring with derealization in the absence of significant psychosis, memory, or identity disturbance. Depersonalization/derealization is categorized as one of the dissociative disorders, which also includes dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, dissociative identity disorder, and forms of dissociative disorder not otherwise specified. Although these disorders may be under-diagnosed or misdiagnosed, many persons with psychiatric illness who have experienced trauma report symptoms consistent with dissociative disorders...

BACKGROUND: Precipitated by psychological stress, dissociative amnesia occurs in the absence of identifiable brain damage. Its clinical characteristics and functional neural basis are still a matter of controversy. METHODS: In the present paper, we report 3 cases of retrograde autobiographical amnesia, characterized by an acute onset concomitant with emotional/neurological precipitants. We present 2 cases of dissociative amnesia with fugue (cases 1 and 2), and one case of focal dissociative amnesia after a minor head trauma (case 3)...

The subject of this report murdered four young girls between 1988 and 1989. The forensic psychiatric evaluation showed that soon after the sudden death of his dearest grandfather he had developed dissociative symptoms including depersonalization, autoscopy, fugue, dissociative amnesia, Ganser's syndrome and DID, on the basis of earlier traumatic experiences under the dysfunctional family circumstances of his early childhood. His DID was thought to be manifest in at least four personalities, i.e., a host personality, a child personality, a cool personality and a female personality...

Dissociative fugue is a rarely reported diagnostic entity. It is one of the least understood and yet clinically one of the most fascinating disorders in mental health. Here, we describe a case of fugue in a 32-year-old man who was brought to mental hospital with complete loss of memory for events pertaining to identity of self. This case illustrates the nature of presentation in hospital setting like mental hospital and effort taken to reintegrate his identity and reunite with his family.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

INTRODUCTION: Dissociative fugue is a psychiatric disorder characterized by amnesia coupled with sudden unexpected travel away from the individual's usual surroundings and denial of all memory of his or her whereabouts during the period of wandering. Dissociative fugue is a rare disorder that is infrequently reported. Before now, no case of it had been reported in a medical student. CASE PRESENTATION: This article focuses on the report of a case of dissociative fugue symptoms in a 28-year-old male Nigerian medical student...

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. The disorders may be under-diagnosed or misdiagnosed, but many persons who have experienced trauma report "dissociative" symptoms...

The rationale, research literature, and proposed changes to the dissociative disorders and conversion disorder in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) are presented. Dissociative identity disorder will include reference to possession as well as identity fragmentation, to make the disorder more applicable to culturally diverse situations. Dissociative amnesia will include dissociative fugue as a subtype, since fugue is a rare disorder that always involves amnesia but does not always include confused wandering or loss of personality identity...

We report the case of a 43 year old male with no prior psychiatric history with apparent tacrolimus-induced psychosis. Previous reports have identified other neurotoxic adverse effects due to tacrolimus, however, to our knowledge, there are few reports that describe psychosis induced by the immunosuppressant drug. Although psychosis may be a rare adverse effect, it can have significant impact on the long-term prognosis and treatment in transplant recipients. It is imperative to quickly identify patients who develop a mental status change while on tacrolimus and to work with the appropriate transplant team in managing these patients...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

A 62-year-old man presented with a history suggesting both dissociative fugue and a distinct fugue-like hallucination. The dissociative fugues included unplanned travel, loss of personal identity, inability to recall his past and amnesia for the fugue interval. The subjective fugues consisted of a stereotyped hallucination wherein he would travel to a social gathering place, meet his 'imaginary friends' and engage with them in conversation. He experienced the subjective fugues as if they were real, recognised them as hallucinations when he was normally conscious, and remembered them in great detail...

Dissociative disorders are frequent comorbid conditions of other mental disorders. Yet, there is controversy about their clinical relevance, and little systematic research has been done on how they influence global functioning. Outpatients and day care patients (N=160) of several psychiatric units in Switzerland were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-IV Axis I Disorders, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders, Global Assessment of Functioning Scale, and World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule-II...

AIM: To pay attention to the role of stress connected with delivery, obstetric history, as to the pathologies in the infant as predictors of dissociative disturbances in the patient of the maternity ward. METHOD: The case analysis. CASE DESCRIPTION: The thirty-year-old woman with secondary education, married and employed had left the maternity ward with her baby unnoticed on the fourth day after giving birth. The patient didn't remember this fact after finding her and the infant by the police...

BACKGROUND: We present recommendations for revision of the diagnostic criteria for the Dissociative Disorders (DDs) for DSM-5. The periodic revision of the DSM provides an opportunity to revisit the assumptions underlying specific diagnoses and the empirical support, or lack of it, for the defining diagnostic criteria. METHODS: This paper reviews clinical, phenomenological, epidemiological, cultural, and neurobiological data related to the DDs in order to generate an up-to-date, evidence-based set of DD diagnoses and diagnostic criteria for DSM-5...

BACKGROUND: We present recommendations for revision of the diagnostic criteria for the Dissociative Disorders (DDs) for DSM-5. The periodic revision of the DSM provides an opportunity to revisit the assumptions underlying specific diagnoses and the empirical support, or lack of it, for the defining diagnostic criteria. METHODS: This paper reviews clinical, phenomenological, epidemiological, cultural, and neurobiological data related to the DDs in order to generate an up-to-date, evidence-based set of DD diagnoses and diagnostic criteria for DSM-5...