Do dissociative disorders exist in Northern Ireland?: Blind psychiatric - structured interview assessments of 20 complex psychiatric patients

Abstract

IRELANDABSTRACT -Background and objectives: Dissociative disorders remain relatively controversial diagnoses in British psychiatry. The aim of the current paper was to assess Northern Irish psychiatric patients with complex clinical presentations for dissociative disorders.Method: Twenty patients meeting operationally defined criteria for psychiatric complexity were blindly assessed by a psychiatrist in a diagnostic interview followed by a clinical psychologist in a structured interview.Results: Thirteen of the 20 participants were positive for at least one dissociative disorder. Those with a dissociative disorder had a range of co-morbid problems and all reported histories of childhood trauma and neglect.Conclusion: The psychiatric symptom profiles of dissociative disorders in Northern Ireland are similar to those reported in the literature. Complex psychiatric presentations offer a potential diagnostic clue for such conditions.

A Review of Published Research on Adult Dissociative Identity Disorder

“…The most common focus of the descriptive studies was the clinical features of DID Dell, 2002Dell, , 2006bDorahy et al, 2006b;Ebrinc et al, 2008;Fetkewicz et al, 2000;Ö ztürk and Sar, 2008;Rauschenberger and Prevalence Across Culture Next, we examined whether researchers have documented DID across cultures. Most of the case studies occurred in Western countries, but there were also cases from Japan (Okugawa et al, 2005;Uchinuma and Sekine, 2000), Taiwan (Lin et al, 2007), South Africa (Savitz et al, 2004), andTurkey (Yücel et al, 2000).…”

Trauma and Dissociation in Northern Ireland

“…Northern Irish clinicians tend to believe in the legitimacy of dissociative identity disorder, for example, but believe the condition is relatively rare (Dorahy & Lewis, 2002). Yet, data from a recent study indicates that in Northern Irish psychiatric patients with complex clinical profiles, dissociative disorders, including dissociative identity disorder, are relatively common (Dorahy, Mills, Teggart, O'Kane, & Mulholland, 2004). Consistent with existing literature, those with dissociative disorders report a history of childhood trauma and many years of misdiagnoses (e.g., Coons, 1994;Putnam, Guroff, Silberman, Barban, & Post, 1986;Swica, Lewis, & Lewis, 1996).…”

visão da psicologia e da psiquiatria no fechamento do diagnóstico do Transtorno Dissociativo de Identidade:

“…Esses achados confirmam a hipótese de que TEPT, TDI e TDNE são síndromes fenomenologicamente relacionadas que devem ser resumidas dentro de uma nova categoria diagnóstica (RODEWALD, 2011). Outro estudo, apresentou que os sintomas psiquiátricos graves diferenciam TDs do TEPT crônico, enquanto a dissociação e a vergonha têm um impacto significativo sobre marcadores específicos de relacionamento que funcionam em pacientes psiquiátricos com histórico de abuso infantil e negligência (DORAHY, 2015).…”