Epidemiology of Dissociative Disorders: An Overview

Abstract

General psychiatric assessment instruments do not cover DSM-IV dissociative disorders. Many large-scale epidemiological studies led to biased results due to this deficit in their methodology. Nevertheless, screening studies using diagnostic tools designed to assess dissociative disorders yielded lifetime prevalence rates around 10% in clinical populations and in the community. Special populations such as psychiatric emergency ward applicants, drug addicts, and women in prostitution demonstrated the highest rates. Data derived from epidemiological studies also support clinical findings about the relationship between childhood adverse experiences and dissociative disorders. Thus, dissociative disorders constitute a hidden and neglected public health problem. Better and early recognition of dissociative disorders would increase awareness about childhood traumata in the community and support prevention of them alongside their clinical consequences.

Dissociative Experiences in Psychiatric Inpatients

“…As Sar, V. (2011) has mentioned [27], data collected in diverse geographic locations in the world has underlined the consistency in clinical symptoms of dissociative disorders. Dissociative patients report highest frequencies of childhood psychological trauma such as childhood sexual, emotional, and physical abuse and neglect, among all psychiatric disorders.…”

Parasomnia and Dissociative Disorders

“…The correlation among dissociation, childhood neglect and abuse were shown in both prospective and retrospective studies [23][24][25]. Personality dissociation that develops to protect oneself from intense anxiety in the face of danger or intense stress can manifest itself in the form of dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, depersonalization, SW and ST [26].…”

From Bones to Brain: 50 Years of Star Trek and Changes in the Stigmatization of Psychological Disorders

“…Rather, the events of all episodes of each show can be considered to happen simultaneously among the total population of the series. Therefore, the authors argue that it is appropriate to analyse fictional depictions of psychological disorders using the methodological approach described above and comparing the prevalence rates within the Star Trek series with realworld prevalence rates found in the literature (World Health Organization 2003; Pearson et al 2006;Plassman et al 2007;Richardson et al 2010;Sar 2011;Munjiza et al 2014; National Institute of Mental Health 2016).…”