Dissociative Fugue

A Power Point by: Brandon R. Rahme and John Salamone

Definition

• a rare condition in which a person suddenly, without planning or warning, travels far from home or work and leaves behind a past life.

• Patients show signs of amnesia and have no conscious understanding or knowledge of the reason for the flight.

Cause

• The condition is usually associated with severe stress or trauma. Because persons cannot remember all or part of their past, at some point they become confused about their identity and the situations in which they find themselves.

• In rare cases, they may even take on new identities.

Daily Life in the Fugue State

• There is typically no change in the daily life of the afflicted. As they have no idea any part of their life has changed

• Families are usually left in concern as the person left the home, county, state or even country without warning or reason.

Treatment

• Psychotherapy , sometimes involving hypnosis, is often effective in the treatment of dissociative fugue. Patients, with support from therapists, are encouraged to remember past events by learning to face and cope with the stressful experiences that triggered the fugue.

Prognosis

• Often good. • Not many cases last longer than a few months

and many people make a quick recovery. In more serious cases, the patient may take longer to recover memories of the past.

Case Study• The study is done on a 28 year old man from Nigeria. Ten Days before presentation the man

was studying alone in his room when he saw a full human skeleton reading across from him. He felt very uncomfortable and everything around him was turning unreal. He had no knowledge of the next two days, arriving in South-Western Nigeria, 643Km away a total of 8 hours by drive away. He had arrived at his younger brother’s house with no knowledge of how he got there or how he had the money to get there. He had lose interest in pleasurable activities and a low appetite. During examination it showed a young, well-mannered, well dressed man who had poor eye contact with others. He had a depressed mood, he knew where he was at the time but his concentration was a little off. His long term and short term were intact except for those two days he traveled to his brother’s. His physical examination went well, a basic laboratory testing showed no abnormalities. In conclusion the study showed that dissociative fugue is related to stressful life events and can occur with a comorbid depressive disorder.

News Article• Jeffery Alan Ingram is 40 years old and diagnosed with Dissociative fugue. He had

disappeared for nine months before, this time he was on his way to Canada to visit a friend who was dying of cancer. Due to the stress and grief of his friend dying it led him into an amnesia state, assumed Penny Hansen, his wife. Penny had filed a missing persons report when he did not show up at her mother’s house in Washington. He was show cased on Tv asking if anybody had known who he was to help him find his way back home or any information. Where penny’s brother had seen the news report and contacted Penny, where she had Denver detectives locate him and bring him back home.

John

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H2thM0USSs