Dissociative Disorders Flashcards
Dissociation
Disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity or perception of the environment. Some of patient’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors are removed from conscious awareness and control
Key features of dissociative disorders
- rare
- typically a profound disturbance in memory
- a sense of being detached from yourself (depersonalization)
- derealization
- blurred sense of identity
What are people with dissociative disorders at an increased risk for?
- self mutilation
- suicide
- sexual dysfunction
- alcoholism/substance abuse
- depression
- sleep disorders
- anxiety disorders
- eating disorders
- severe headaches
Dissociative Amnesia
Memory loss that can’t be explained by a physical or neurological condition.
- Conscious recall of traumatic periods, events or people, especially from childhood, are absent from memory
- Onset may be hours, days, months or longer after event
Terms
localized
selective
generalized
systematized
With dissociative fugue specifier
When someone leaves home and assumes a new identity. It starts and ends abruptly, and may last only a few hours, or, rarely, many months.
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Formerly Multiple Personality Recurrent gaps in memory Very rare Most controversial diagnosis in DSM 2 or more distinct identities
Etiology of DID according to psychodynamic theory
Caused by lifetime of excessive repression, as an escape for childhood trauma.
Behavioral etiology for DID
Learned escape behavior through operant conditioning
Posttraumatic model of DID
Arises from a severe history of physical/sexual abuse
Sociocognitive model of DID
DID is a socially constructed condition that results from inadvertent therapist cueing and media influences (iatrogenic effect)
DID treatments
Therapists try to help clients recognize fully the nature of their disorder, recover the gaps in their memory (psychodynamic, drug therapy, hypnotherapy) and integrate their subpersonalities into one functional personality (fusion: the final merging of two or more sub personalities)
Dissociative Amnesia treatments
- people often recover on their own
- psychodynamic theory used since it emphasizes uncovering repressed memories
- hypnotic therapy: a treatment in which the patient undergoes hypnosis and is then guided to recall forgotten events or perform other therapeutic activities.
- drug therapy: Amytal or Pentothal