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Lacunar amnesia is categorized as a type of dissociative amnesia. Amnesia is an impairment of the brain, usually brought upon by physical damage to certain areas of the brain or by psychological factors, such as experiencing a distressing event. Lacunar amnesia (the term “lacuna” deriving from the Latin word meaning “gap”) is described as losing the memory of a traumatic incident that an individual either witnessed or was apart of. Symptoms of lacunar amnesia include:

•	Clouded sense of identity

•	Stress, anxiety, and fear

•	Detachment from the self

•	Depression/suicidal tendencies

•	Distress and confusion from being unable to remember event

Suffering or witnessing a traumatic event is the one singular cause of lacunar amnesia, separating it from other disorders such as dissociative amnesia. Examples of these traumatic events could be physical violence, abuse, accidents, war, or disasters These specific memories tend to be repressed into the subconscious causing the victim to not be able to remember the event. It is hypothesized by Sigmund Freud that memories stored in the subconscious may be able to return to the consciousness, also referred to as the return of the repressed. Furthermore, repressed contents are not fully eliminated from the mind and may influence behavior unconsciously through dreams, decisions, preferences, and emotional reactions.

Accordingly, studies also reference that lacunar amnesia can be determined through multiple factors that are not associated with general amnesia, such as:

•	Memory loss is not a result of substance abuse

•	Memory loss is not a result of physical trauma

•	Memory loss is not a result of dissociative identity disorder

Therefore, lacunar amnesia is neurophysiological, meaning it is caused by psychological trauma. The higher the emotional distress, the more the brain works to remove memories of the event as if it never happened before. There are multiple pathways in the brain that hide memories. Chemical receptors, called extra-synaptic GABA receptors, work outside the normal balanced system to adjust brain waves and mental states in accordance to the levels of internal chemicals. Experiment results show that these receptors are present when the brain is encoding and forcefully forgetting memories, such as a fear-induced event. If the traumatic event occurs while these extra-synaptic GABA receptors are active, then it’s suggested the memory cannot be accessed unless those same receptors are activated again. These studies show that the brain uses multiple pathways to store either traumatic or normal memories.

There are well-known legal and medical cases revolving around lacunar amnesia, where a person may suddenly remember a traumatic incident that took place in their childhood, such as sexual abuse. It is common through factors such as dreams, or triggers, that individuals note remembering these instances. These specific cases have caused controversy due to the fact that there is no way to show evidence of any abuse well after the alleged incident, and no way of knowing if the memory has been fabricated by the patient. There are many medical and legal consequences of claiming lacunar amnesia when committing or apart of a serious offense. It remains very controversial, as professionals believe memories can be “planted” without ever actually taking place. The main goal of treatment for someone with lacuna amnesia is to try and recover the memory of that traumatic event. Other goals include teaching the patient appropriate coping strategies, dealing with the traumatic event head on, and getting their lives back to normal