Dissociation in Patients with Non-Psychotic Mental Disorders

In a sample of 62 patients with non-psychotic mental disorders, pathological dissociation was found in 12.9% of patients, all female. Among those with psychogenic disorders, the rate of pathological dissociation was more than three times higher than among those with organic disorders. Absorption was the most common dissociative phenomenon, while dissociative amnesia was the least common. The highest dissociation levels occurred in young, never-married women. Patients with psychogenic disorders had significantly higher average dissociation than the general population, whereas those with organic disorders had significantly lower dissociation, suggesting that organic brain processes may disrupt dissociative mechanisms.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Background. Dissociation is a generally recognized phenomenon in psychology and psychiatry; however, questions are still not fully resolved about the di!erence between pathological and normal dissociation, as well as the role of dissociation, depending on its aetiology, in the formation of clinical manifestations of mental disorders. Objective. To complement the existing data about the signi"cance of dissociation in non-psychotic mental disorders. Design. Using the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES), we screened 62 patients (13 male and 49 female) from the Non-Psychotic Conditions Inpatient Department of the Udmurt Republican Clinical Psychiatric Hospital (Izhevsk, Russia). Nineteen of the patients had mental disorders of organic aetiology and 43 patients had mental disorders of psychogenic aetiology. Results. Dissociation at the pathological level was detected in 12.9% of the patients, all of them female. Among patients with psychogenic disorders, the proportion of patients with pathological dissociation was more than three times that of patients with organic disorders. Among the particular dissociative phenomena, absorption had the highest average severity, both in the general sample and in each aetiological group of patients, while dissociative amnesia had the lowest average severity. #e highest levels of dissociation were found in young female patients who had never been married. In patients with psychogenic disorders, the average dissociation severity was signi"cantly higher than in the general population, while in patients with organic disorders it was signi"cantly lower. Conclusion. #e dissociation phenomenon may play a signi"cant symptomforming role in young women su!ering from non-psychotic mental disorders of psychogenic aetiology. In the case of organic mental disorders, the severity of dissociative manifestations decreases even below the conditionally normal level, which may indirectly indicate the destruction of dissociative physiological mechanisms by an organic brain process.