Somatoform Dissociation and Symptoms of Traumatic Stress in Adolescents

Abstract

Dissociation is traditionally attributed to trauma and other psychological stressors although there is evidence that in many cases dissociative symptoms could be attributable to initial brain insult, injury or other organic brain disease. With respect to these findings there is a question to which extent symptoms of somatoform dissociation are related to symptoms of traumatic stress or whether these symptoms may be predominantly attributed to various somatic factors. With this aim we have assessed the relationship between somatoform dissociation and symptoms of traumatic stress in a group of 75 healthy adolescents. Main result of this study indicates statistically significant relationship between somatoform dissociative symptoms and psychosocial stressors measured by symptoms of traumatic stress. Results of this study also show that the symptoms of somatoform dissociation may occur continuously in population and that only in high level of their experience they cause psychopathological states. In this context, result of this study suggests that also mild levels of stress influence somatic feelings that may lead to symptoms that may occur also as a consequence of various somatic factors.

Dissociative Symptoms and Mother's Marital Status in Young Adult Population

“…Somatoform dissociative symptoms were measured using 20-items self-reported Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire (SDQ-20). 11 , 12 Normative score of the scale defines significant occurrence of somatoform dissociative symptoms for scores >30. Somatoform dissociative symptoms represent alterations in sensations of pain (analgesia, kinesthetic anesthesia), alterations of perception, loss of motor control, gastrointestinal symptoms, etc.…”

Complex Traumatic Stress in the Pediatric Medical Setting

“…The last process through which complex traumatic stress may influence pain is through somatoform dissociation, which includes either increased pain perception or analgesia and has been linked to childhood trauma (particularly physical abuse) and traumatic stress in adults (Kukla, Selesova, Okrajek, & Tulak, 2010;Waller et al, 2000). One longitudinal study suggested that a critical period for the development of dissociation in children is during the preschool-age years (Macfie, Cicchetti, & Toth, 2001).…”

Psychoform and somatoform dissociation among children and adolescents: An evaluation of a new short screening instrument for dissociation, DSQ-12

“…Nijenhuis and colleagues (1996) also created a short version SDQ-5 and suggested it might be used as a screening instrument. The SDQ-20 has been translated and used in several countries (Kukla et al, 2010;Mueller-Pfeiffer et al, 2010;Pullin et al, 2012). It contains 20 questions which are to be answered on a Likert-scale from 1-5 (Mueller-Pfeiffer et al, 2010).…”