[Functional memory disorders. A study of 25 patients]

Twenty-five patients without relevant organic disease were examined who complained of long-standing memory disturbance, but were free of relevant organic disease and exhibited a test performance that was normal, or reduced by not more than two standard deviations. Cases of amnesia in the context of dissociative reactions were not considered. Symptoms attributed to memory disturbance were differentiated into deficits of new learning, retrograde memory and attention. Typical complaints were forgetting plans on the way to executing them and temporary blockage of material that had been committed to memory. While sex and age were evenly distributed, there was a clear predominance of professionals compared to manual workers. Relevant psychiatric findings or psychiatric diagnoses were present in all cases. The most frequent diagnoses were chronic stress disorder and depressive syndromes. Accompanying psychosomatic symptoms were present in about half of the cases. Wordlist learning scores were in the normal range in the majority of cases, and psychomotor speed scores were in the normal range in nearly all cases. The discussion addresses symptoms, diagnosis, etiology and therapy of functional memory disturbances and examines the relationship to the syndrome of pseudodementia.