DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS

DISORDER CRITERIA ONSET TREATMENT

Disruption of and/or discontinuity in the normal
integration of consciousness, memory, identity,
emotion, perception, body representation, motor B. Recurrent gaps in the recall of
Dissociative Identity control, and behavior everyday events, important personal
Disorder information, and/ or traumatic events that
are inconsistent with ordinary forgetting.
Inconsistent with normal forgetting
May or may not involve purposeful
travel of bewildered wandering
(dissociative fugue)
Localized amnesia: failure to recall
events during a circumscribed period of
Characterized by an inability to recall
time; Selective amnesia: can recall
autobiographical information which amnesia
Dissociative some, but not all; Generalized amnesia:
may be localized, selective, or generalized
Amnesia complete loss of memory; Systematized
amnesia: loss of memory for a specific
category; Continuous amnesia: forgets
each new event as it occurs
In diagnosing children, clinicians must
base report from several sources because
they have difficulty understanding
questions about amnesia
Depersonalization:
Experiences of unreality, detachment, or being an
outside observer with respect to one’s thoughts, During the depersonalization or
Depersonalization/
feelings, sensations, body, or actions derealization experiences, reality testing
Derealization
remains intact.
Disorder
Derealization:
Experiences of unreality or detachment with
respect to surroundings
Psychopharmacological Interventions
Psychotherapy:
- Psychoanalytic Therapy to be able to resolve
Any age at any time past trauma
Almost always in - Cognitive Therapy helps solve distortion,
childhood, often as young however, resulting to slow progress and may
as 4 years of age lead to additional dysphoria
- Hypnosis can often alleviate self- destructive
impulses or reduce symptoms, such as
flashbacks, dissociative hallucinations and
passive-influence experiences
Onset of generalized
- Electroconvulsive Therapy is often successful
amnesia is usually sudden.
and does not worsen dissociative memory
It has been observed in
problems
young children,
adolescents, and adults.
Adjunctive Treatments
- Group Therapy elicits excess fascination or by
Individuals may report
frightening other patients. It is more effective
multiple/single episodes;
if all patients in a group have dissociative
may not appear to be
identity disorder
acutely symptomatic; some
- Family Therapy is often important for long-
episodes resolve rapidly;
term stabilization and to address pathological
some may recall
family and marital processes that are common
dissociated memories years
in patients with DID and their family
after
members
- Expressive Therapy to help with containment
The duration range be can
and structuring of severe DID and PTSD
be minutes to decades
symptoms; as to permit these patients safer
expression of thoughts, feelings, mental
images and conflicts
- Movement Therapy may facilitate
normalization of body sense and body image
16 years
- Occupational Therapy may help patient with
grounding and symptom management through
structured activities