Dissociative Disorders

Question 1

It is popularly known as hypochondriasis but is now called more accurately as ___ in the textbook edition of DSM-V.

Answer 1

Illness anxiety disorder

Question 2

These disorders have an excessive or maladaptive response to physical symptoms or to associated health concerns.

Answer 2

Somatic symptom disorders

Question 3

These disorders have an excessive or maladaptive response to physical symptoms or to associated health concerns. They were once categorized under “hysterical neurosis”. Hysterical means physical symptoms with no known organic cause, while neurosis implies unconscious conflicts. However, due to the prejudicial and stigmatizing term “hysterical”, it is no longer used.

Answer 3

Somatic symptom disorders (SSD)

Question 4

Somatic symptom disorder was once called ___ for many years.

Answer 4

Briquet’s syndrome

Question 5

T or F: The important factor in SSD is not whether the physical symptom has a medical cause or not, but rather that psychological or behavioral factors, particularly anxiety, and distress, are compounding the severity and impairment associated with the physical symptoms.

Answer 5

T

Question 6

In this type of dissociative experience, you temporarily lose the sense of your own reality, as if you were in a dream and you were watching yourself. You feel likeyour thoughts and feelings are not your own.

Answer 6

Depersonalization

Question 7

What makes somatic symptom disorder different from an illness anxiety disorder?

Answer 7

There are physical symptoms in somatic symptom disorder which can be severe, whereas physical symptoms are either not experienced at the present time or are very mild or minor in illness anxiety disorder.

Question 8

People with this disorder may feel like their symptoms constitute their identity.

Answer 8

Illness anxiety disorder

Question 9

T or F: In illness anxiety disorder, the concern is primarily with the idea of being sick instead of the physical symptoms themselves.

Answer 9

T

Question 10

In patients with somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder, reassurance from physicians helps their anxiety and distress.

Answer 10

F, reassurance from physicians does not seem to help. They may perceive medical care as unhelpful or see their physician as not taking them seriously. Those who do go for medical attention may experience heightened levels of anxiety

Question 11

T or F: In somatic symptom disorder, evidence shows that it runs in families and that there is a modest genetic contribution.

Answer 11

T

Question 12

This cognitive behavioral treatment involves the clinician going over the source and origins of their symptoms in detail, which has been proven to be effective in treating health anxiety and somatic symptom disorder.

Answer 12

Explanatory therapy

Question 13

This disorder has something to do with physical malfunctioning (e.g. paralysis, blindness, difficulty speaking such as aphonia) without any physical or organic pathology to account for the malfunction.

Answer 13

Conversion disorder

Question 14

Acute conversion disorder is diagnosed if it is less than 6 months, whereas persistent conversion disorder is diagnosed if ___.

Answer 14

More than 6 months

Question 15

T or F: Conversion disorder does not include excessive checking or thinking of symptoms, which can cause anxiety and distress in the individual. It is similar to somatic symptom disorder in that both have physical or organic symptoms.

Answer 15

T

Question 16

People with this disorder act as if they have an illness by deliberately producing, feigning, and exaggerating symptoms.

Answer 16

Factitious disorder

Question 17

What do you call a seizure that has a psychological origin, which is one of the symptoms that can be observed in individuals with a conversion disorder?

Answer 17

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures

Question 18

T or F: Factitious disorder (previously known as Munchausen syndrome) involves intentionally inducing oneself into sickness for financial or personal gain (external gains)

Answer 18

F, people with factitious disorders seek to take the sick role and receive interpersonal benefits or internal incentives

Question 19

In this type of dissociative experience, you temporarily lose the sense of your own reality, as if you were in a dream and you were watching yourself. You feel like your thoughts and feelings are not your own.

Answer 19

Depersonalization

Question 20

In this type of dissociative experience, your sense of the reality of the external world is lost. Things may seem to change shape or size; people may seem dead or mechanical.

Answer 20

Derealization

Question 21

In depersonalization-derealization disorder, the reality is no longer intact.

Answer 21

F. It is people with schizophrenia whose reality is no longer intact

Question 22

A subtype of dissociative amnesia wherein memory loss revolves around a specific incident or an unexpected trip. During these trips, a person may assume a new identity.

Answer 22

Dissociative fugue

Question 23

In this type of amnesia, there is a failure to recall specific events, usually traumatic.

Answer 23

Localized or selective amnesia

Question 23

In this type of amnesia, there is a failure to recall specific events, usually traumatic.

Answer 23

Selective or localized amnesia

Question 24

T or F: While in a fugue state, you may not just experience memory loss but also the disintegration of identity or the complete adoption of a new one.

Answer 24

T

Question 25

Dissociative disorders have cultural implications. When the state is undesirable and considered pathological by members of the culture, particularly if the trance involves a perception of being possessed by an evil spirit or another person, what would be the diagnosis?

Answer 25

Dissociative trance or other specified dissociative disorder

Question 26

T or F: In many cases of dissociative identity disorder (DID), only a few characteristics are distinct, because the identities are partially independent.

Answer 26

T, this was the reason why the name was changed from multiple personality disorder

Question 27

What are the average number of alters in people with DID?

Answer 27

15

Question 28

In people with DID, what alter usually asks for treatment?

Answer 28

It is usually the “host” identity that seeks treatment, which commonly develops at a later time. Seldom does the original personality of the person seek one.

Question 29

T or F: Cross-gendered alters are not common in people with DID.

Answer 29

F, they are common. For example, a small agile woman might have a strong powerful male alter who serves as her protector

Question 30

T or F: The possibility of identity fragments and early trauma, which comprises DID, can be socially reinforced by a therapist.

Answer 30

T, therapists can inadvertently suggest the existence of alters to suggestible individuals

Question 31

T or F: Malingerers are more likely to attempt to hide their symptoms, whereas patients with DID are usually eager to demonstrate their symptoms and do so in a fluid fashion.

Answer 31

F, those with DID are more likely to attempt to hide their symptoms, which sets them apart from malingerers

Question 32

What’s the common cause of DID?

Answer 32

Childhood trauma, which can include abuse