Dissociative Symptoms and Trauma Exposure

Abstract

Although dissociation is often described as a posttraumatic response, the actual statistical association between trauma exposure and dissociative symptoms is surprisingly small. This suggests that that some dissociative phenomena may be unrelated to trauma, or may be related in more complex ways. Analysis of the normative data for the Multiscale Dissociation Inventory revealed significant dissociative symptoms in only 8% of trauma-exposed individuals from the general population. However, 90% of those with at least one clinically significant dissociation scale on the Multiscale Dissociation Inventory reported a trauma history, and significant dissociation was found in only 2% of nontraumatized individuals. A history of interpersonal violence, number of different types of trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress, and affect dysregulation were univariate predictors of dissociative symptomatology in trauma-exposed participants, but only posttraumatic stress and affect dysregulation were multivariate predictors. Trauma is probably an important, but insufficient, condition for the development of dissociative symptomatology. Additional risk factors, such as high posttraumatic stress and/or reduced affect regulation capacities, may determine whether trauma exposure results in clinically significant dissociation.

Cumulative childhood trauma, emotion regulation, dissociation, and behavior problems in school-aged sexual abuse victims

“…In line with our hypotheses and with results of past studies, cumulative childhood trauma was associated with higher levels of emotional dysregulation, dissociation, and behavior problems (Briere, 2006;Choi and Oh, 2014;Hodges et al, 2015;Horan and Widom, 2015). Furthermore, descriptive analyses revealed CSA rarely occurs alone.…”

“…Consistent with this idea, empirical studies found that emotional dysregulation predicted dissociative symptomatology in trauma-exposed adults and sexually abused youth offenders (Briere, 2006;Chaplo et al, 2015;Powers et al, 2015). In a sample of maltreated teenagers, emotional dysregulation was found to predict dissociation symptoms over and beyond the forms of maltreatment experienced, the number of perpetrators involved, as well as the age of onset (Sundermann and DePrince, 2015).…”

“…Recently, a longitudinal study investigating adult functioning of survivors of childhood abuse and neglect found that exposure to a greater number of early adversities was associated with fewer years of education, higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and increased criminal arrests in adulthood (Horan and Widom, 2015). Number of trauma types also appears to be positively associated with dissociative symptoms in adults (Briere, 2006).…”

Evaluation of the evidence for the trauma and fantasy models of dissociation.

“…However, the base rate of DID in most cUnical samples is low (1.3% in Ross's, 1991, nonclinical sample); thus, the correlation coefficient can be misleading. For instance, in a large sample {N = 618), Briere's (2006) correlation of . 11 between trauma and cUnical elevation on the MDI accounts for less than 2% of the variance.…”

Prevalence of Dissociative Experiences in Those Referred to Emergency Psychiatric Centers After Attempting Suicide

“…There is a history of trauma in a large number of patients with dissociative disorders; however, many with a traumatic history do not have symptoms of this disorder. 13 In those affected, the signs of a dissociative disorder may manifest as a depersonalization disorder, forgetfulness and psychological anesthesia. In severe trauma, these shortterm symptoms can be effective defense mechanisms, but in the long run, they decrease the ability of the individual to function.…”