Week 10: Dissociative Disorders

Question 1

What are depersonalisation disorders?

Answer 1

Experiences of unreality, feeling outside observe of one’s own body, thoughts, feelings, sensations and behaviours.

Question 2

What are derealisation disorders?

Answer 2

Experiences of unreality, detachment from one’s surroundings - individuals or objects are experienced as unreal, dreamlike, foggy and lifeless.

Question 3

What is the difference b/w depersonalisation and derealisation disorders?

Answer 3

Depersonalisation is an out-of-body experience whereas derealisation is a change in perception of the environment around an individual.

Question 4

What are the clinical features of dissociative amnesia?

Answer 4

An inability to recall important personal information that cannot be attributed to normal forgetting.

Question 5

What is controversial about dissociative identify disorder?

Answer 5

Thought to be ‘faked’ or could be ‘faked’, unsure as to how it develops, are early memories of those diagnoses real, has the abuse played a causal role.

Question 6

Cultural factors of dissociative disorders?

Answer 6

Related phenomena such as spirit possession and dissociative trances, occur frequently in many parts of the world where local cultures sanction them, when they are involuntary and cause distress, possession states are considered to be pathological.

Question 7

Treatments and outcomes associated with Dissociative disorders?

Answer 7

Absence of randomised controlled trials, depersonalisation/derealisation may use hypnosis, antidepressant, anti anxiety, and antipsychotic drugs, administering rTMS (repetitive trans cranial magnetic stimulation) to the temporoparietal junction