A patient with longstanding generalised anxiety describes gradually worsening forgetfulness over several months, closely tracking her worsening worry and poor concentration, which improves noticeably on the days her anxiety feels more settled. What is this?

This is anxiety amnesia: memory difficulty arising from anxious preoccupation and poor concentration, tracking the severity of the underlying anxiety and improving as it settles, exactly as described. It is not dissociative amnesia, since anxiety amnesia differs from dissociative amnesia in lacking the sudden onset, sharp boundaries, and preserved general functioning typical of that condition — here the onset is gradual and tracks anxiety rather than a sudden trauma-triggered break. It is not an amnestic state, since anxiety amnesia differs from a true dementia or organic amnestic state in that the underlying problem is attention and concentration rather than a primary disturbance of memory storage, and it is reversible with treatment of the underlying condition. And it is not depressive pseudodementia specifically, since although the two can closely resemble each other, this presentation is explicitly anxiety-driven rather than tied to a depressive illness.