OnlineMedEd: Psychiatry - Dissociative Disorders

Question 1

Dissociative disorders usually occur after _______________.

Answer 1

severe and prolonged stressors

Question 2

Formerly, dissociative states were treated with ____________.

Answer 2

amytal (a barbiturate that acts as a truth serum)

Question 3

When seeing a patient with a dissociative disorder, you need to rule out _____________.

Answer 3

malingering and substance abuse

Question 4

How are dissociative disorders treated?

Answer 4

With psychotherapy around the original trauma

Question 5

What is the theory on why dissociative identity disorder occurs?

Answer 5

It’s thought that the person creates another ego that can experience the trauma so that the primary ego doesn’t need to. After the trauma, however, the egos are in conflict.

Question 6

Those with DID will have ____________ when transitioning between states.

Answer 6

memory gaps

Question 7

What are the two kinds of amnesia?

Answer 7

• With fugue (travel)
• Without fugue (no travel)

Both can present with selective amnesia for the trauma or global amnesia of the person’s autobiography.

Question 8

What is the difference between depersonalization and derealization?

Answer 8

• Depersonalization is the feeling of not being in your body.
• Derealization is the feeling of not being in your environment. (As if you’re “in a dream” or unreal.)

Question 9

What is the usual etiology of depersonalization and derealization?

Answer 9

A less severe trauma in an adolescent

“My girlfriend broke up with me.”