Dissociative disorders as a confounding factor in psychiatric research

Abstract

Dissociative disorders almost always co-occur with other psychiatric disorders. The lack of dissociative disorder sections in widely used general psychiatric assessment instruments, however, has contributed to their being overlooked for many decades. Recent studies have demonstrated the presence of significant dissociative comorbidity for several psychiatric disorders, and provided clues about the etiology, clinical phenomenology, treatment, and natural course of these disorders. Its link to childhood trauma makes dissociation important for evaluation of stress-diathesis in general psychiatry. Dissociation has the potential of contributing to the development of new models of mental functioning and novel treatment modalities in psychiatry based on the principles of a new science: psychotraumatology.