Dissociative Experiences in Psychiatric Inpatients

Abstract

Dissociative disorders are conditions that involve disruptions of memory, awareness, identity, or perception. Data collected in diverse geographic locations underline the consistency in clinical symptoms of dissociative disorders. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, prevalence of dissociative experiences has been screened in hospitalized patients in psychiatric wards of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran. One hundred and sixty patients in two hospitals entered the study. Our tool to screen the prevalence of dissociative experiences was Dissociative Experience Scale (DES). Linear regression analysis shows that gender and age are predictors of high DES scores to some extent while psychiatric disorders are not good predictors. Age, gender and psychiatric disorders are poor predictors (almost 7%) of high DES scores in this study (R square=0.69). In this study, patients with Borderline Personality Disorder had higher dissociative experiences based on DES score (Mean: 56.44), followed by Schizophrenic patients (Mean: 28.22) and patients with Bipolar Personality Disorder (Mean: 25.18). This study showed that we might be able to create a new category in psychological disorders based on dissociative experiences. As age, gender and psychological disorders were poor predictors of dissociative experiences, stronger predictors such as positive childhood psychological traumas could be responsible for dissociative disorders.