Which amnesia denotes inability to remember events prior to a trauma or incident?

• A. Retrograde amnesia
• B. Anterograde amnesia
• C. Global amnesia
• D. Dissociative amnesia

Answer: (A)

Differentiating types of amnesia by the timing of memory loss relative to a trauma helps identify the correct pattern. In retrograde amnesia, the person cannot recall events that occurred before the traumatic incident, while memories after the event and the ability to form new memories can remain intact. This fits the scenario of loss of pre-trauma memories. By contrast, anterograde amnesia involves difficulty forming new memories after the incident, with pre-event memories typically preserved. Global amnesia implies widespread memory loss for both past and new information, and dissociative amnesia is a psychogenic loss of autobiographical memory that isn’t limited specifically to pre-trauma events. Therefore, the inability to remember events prior to the trauma points to retrograde amnesia.