Dissociative Amnesia and Dissociative Fugue

Abstract

In clinical practice, dissociative fugue and dissociative amnesia are usually elements of other specified dissociative disorder or dissociative identity disorder (DID), rather than occurring as independent disorders. In non-clinical populations, fugue is rare but dissociative amnesia as a free-standing disorder is more common than DID. There have been only a few isolated case reports of fugue over the last forty years. There are a number of problems with fugue that should be addressed in future research, including that fugue may be a more complex disorder than dissociative amnesia and should not be classified as a subtype of amnesia as it is in DSM-5. A problem with dissociative amnesia is that individuals who meet criteria for it as an independent disorder do not appear to be in the dissociative taxon on the Dissociative Experiences Scale. This chapter examines dissociative amnesia and fugue, the studies related to them, challenges associate with their classification and future research needed to provide greater clarity.