A 26-year-old man cannot remember any events from the three days surrounding a road traffic accident in which his friend died. Recall of earlier life history and subsequent events is intact. Neurological examination and MRI brain are normal. Which pattern of dissociative amnesia does this represent?

• A Generalized amnesia
• B Systematized amnesia
• C Continuous amnesia
• D Localized amnesia ✓

Explanation

Localized (circumscribed) amnesia is failure to recall all events within a circumscribed period, usually the first few hours or days around a traumatic event, which fits this case exactly. Generalized amnesia covers the entire life history, continuous amnesia extends forward from the event to the present, and systematized amnesia is loss of memory for a specific category of information such as all memories of one person.

Reference: Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, 11th ed.

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