Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Dissociative Disorders”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 595 records · Page 33Linked to original sources

[Possessed! Some historical, psychiatric and curent moments of demonic possession].

Being possessed by demons or evil spirits is one of the oldest ways of explaining bodily and mental disorders. The article briefly mentions some contributions from other disciplines, but considers in particular psychiatry's and medicine's approach throughout history. During the middle ages of Europe possession (and witchcraft) was considered just one out of several causes of mental illness. Astrological theories prevailed, in addition to the humoral theories of medicine. In addition distinctions were made between eccentricity, madness and religious visions and revelations. A large number of the alleged witches and possessed persons who were burned probably had visible mental disturbances. Today's psychiatry does not refer symptoms of possession to any specific category, but usually classifies this as some kind of psychotic disturbance of thought. Exorcism of evil spirits by Jesus Christ is described often in the Gospels. Possession was the only "available" concept for a bundle of neuro-psychiatric disorders: dissociative states, psychoses and epilepsy. To day, the terminology and "diagnostic" principles have been taken over by fundamentalistic groups, who practise exorcism on persons with (probably) minor mental problems and symptoms. The author criticises this activity.

Europe↗

Long-term consequences of traumatic experiences: an assessment of former political detainees in Romania.

BACKGROUND: Research has suggested that organized violence and torture have long-term psychological effects that persist throughout the lifespan. The present survey aimed at examining the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other disorders and symptoms, all present in old age, as long-term consequences of politically motivated violence in a comparison design. METHODS: A group of former political detainees (N = 59, mean age 73.5 years) who had been arrested by the Romanian communist regime were compared to an age- and gender-matched control group (N = 39). PTSD was assessed using a structured clinical interview (CIDI). The investigation of the clinical profile was further accomplished by self-rating measures for anxiety, depression, and health-related functioning, as well as by clinician-administrated interviews for substance abuse, dissociation, and somatization symptoms. RESULTS: Lifetime prevalence of PTSD was 54%. In the case of participants left untreated, PTSD persisted, often over four decades, such that current PTSD was diagnosed still in a third of the survivors. Other clinical conditions such as somatization, substance abuse, dissociative disorders, and major depression were also common among the former political detainees and often associated with current PTSD. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that political detention may have long-term psychological consequences that outlast the changes in the political system.

Journal Article↗

Clinical characteristics related to severity of sexual abuse: a study of seriously mentally ill youth.

OBJECTIVE: In this study we examined demographic, social, and clinical variables related to sexual abuse histories in a sample of severely mentally ill youth. METHOD: Data were collected via a retrospective chart review of all patients treated over a 5-year period (1987-1992) at a tertiary care public sector psychiatric hospital. The sample was divided into four groups: no history of sexual abuse (n = 226); isolated events (n = 62); intermittent abuse (n = 61); and chronic (n = 150). RESULTS: Youth with sexual abuse histories were more often female, had higher rates of social chaos and associated physical abuse and neglect, and had higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse disorders. Chronically abused subjects came from the most chaotic and abusive backgrounds; were younger when first abused; had the highest number of abusers; were more likely to have been molested; and were more often abused by their father/stepfather and/or their mother/stepmother. Using logistic regression analyses, sexual abuse histories were predicted by sexually inappropriate behaviors, symptoms of PTSD and borderline personality disorders, dissociative symptoms, substance abuse and animal cruelty. CONCLUSION: Sexual abuse histories were quite common in this sample. Sexually abused subjects had increased rates of inappropriate sexual behaviors, substance abuse, and post-traumatic reactions; and were frequently exposed to other confounding environmental risk factors, including physical abuse, family problems and social chaos.

Adolescent↗

Exploring racial disparity in posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis: implications for care of African American women.

OBJECTIVE: To explore factors contributing to disparities in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis between African Americans and White Americans, while controlling for gender and class by using a data set limited to poor women. DESIGN: A cross-sectional epidemiological secondary analysis. SETTING: Michigan Medicaid fee-for-service claims data from 1994 through 1997. SAMPLE: A total of 20,298 African American and White American adolescents and adult women, including 2,996 with PTSD diagnosis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Victimization, PTSD diagnosis, psychiatric and somatic comorbidities, and PTSD treatment. RESULTS: African American women were under-represented in the group diagnosed with PTSD (12% versus 31% in the comparison group), despite having equal rates of hospitalization for rape and battering. They were less likely to be diagnosed with comorbidities associated with complex PTSD, such as dissociative disorder (OR = 0.259, p < .001) or borderline personality disorder (OR = 0.178, p < .001), but were equally likely to be diagnosed with conduct disorder, schizophrenia, or substance abuse. African American women were 40% less likely to have continuous insurance coverage. CONCLUSIONS: Patient, provider, and system factors appear to interact to create disparities in PTSD diagnosis and treatment. Attention to case finding and provider or system bias may help reduce disparities.

Adolescent↗

A discrimination based on autogenous versus reactive obsessions in obsessive-compulsive disorder and related clinical manifestations.

INTRODUCTION: Although putative subtypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been gradually more recognized, there is no generally accepted subtype discrimination. It has been suggested that autogenous and reactive obsessions stem from different cognitive process. This study aimed to assess existence of gender, age at onset of illness, and comorbidity differences in OCD patients suffering from autogenous and reactive obsessions. METHODS: The medical records of 177 OCD patients were evaluated retrospectively for gender, age at onset, comorbid diagnoses, and predisposing life events. Obsessions and compulsions were coded according to the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. All patients were grouped as the patients with autogenous (autogenous group [AG] n=32), reactive (reactive group [RG] n=77) and mixed obsessions (mixed group [MG] n=68). RESULTS: AG patients were significantly more likely to be male, compared with the RG and MG patients. They also had significantly later onset of illness. Dissociative disorders were less common among AG patients compared with the other groups. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that the discrimination between autogenous and reactive obsessions are not only based on their development and maintenance mechanism through different cognitive process but that there also clinical manifestations of this discrimination.

Adult↗

[A patient with Gulf war syndrome. On discussion of an uncertain disease picture].

The Gulf War syndrome represents neurological and neuropsychological disorders in veterans of the Persian Gulf war. Until today, the various symptoms observed could not be attributed to any defined disease. As a possible cause, exposure to neurotoxic agents such as the organophosphates used during the war has been suggested by many authors. We report on a 29-year-old man who suffered from dysmnesia, disturbance of orientation, cognitive impairment, and double vision. His history revealed several front-line operations in 1990 and 1991 during the Gulf War. Physical examinations showed a complex eye-movement disturbance and a horizontal nystagmus, which was neuro-ophthalmologically confirmed. The early auditory potentials referred to a brainstem dysfunction and the cognitive disturbances correlated to changes in the late-appearing component of event-related potentials (P 300). Brain imaging with CCT, MRI, SPECT, PET, and EEG and CSF showed no pathologies. Neuropsychological tests disclosed severe cognitive impairment especially concerning memory. Three-month follow-up studies in a department of psychosomatic medicine excluded a dissociative disorder as a feature of a post-traumatic stress or a conversion disorder. This is the first case of Gulf War syndrome in Germany. We focus on an unfamiliar complication after the war. The recent literature is reviewed.

Accidents, Traffic↗

Posttraumatic stress disorder and physical comorbidity among female children and adolescents: results from service-use data.

OBJECTIVE: In adults, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with adverse health outcomes and high medical utilization and cost. PTSD is twice as common in women and is associated with increased risk for a range of diseases, chronic conditions, and reproductive-health problems. Little is known about the health effects of PTSD in children. The purpose of this study was to explore patterns of physical comorbidity in female children and adolescents with PTSD by using population data. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional, descriptive epidemiologic case-control analysis of a Midwestern state's Medicaid eligibility and paid-claims data for girls (0-8 years old) and teens (9-17 years old). Data were from 1994-1997. All those with the PTSD diagnostic code were compared with randomly selected controls in relation to 3 sets of outcomes: (1) International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) categories of disease; (2) chronic conditions previously associated with sexual trauma and PTSD in women; and (3) reproductive-health problems. Analyses included bivariate odds ratios (OR) and logistic-regression models that control for the extent of insurance coverage and the independent associations of victimization and psychiatric comorbidity with the 3 sets of outcomes. The mental health covariate was categorical to allow consideration of a range of severity. There were 4 categories for the young girls: neither PTSD nor depression, PTSD without depression, depression without PTSD, and PTSD + depression. For the adolescent analysis, a fifth category reflecting a "complex PTSD" was added, defined as having PTSD complicated by a dissociative disorder or borderline personality disorder diagnosis. RESULTS: There were 647 girls and 1025 adolescents with the PTSD diagnosis. Overall, PTSD was associated with adverse health outcomes in both age strata. Victimization was sometimes independently associated with adverse health outcomes, but PTSD often was a mediator, especially in the adolescent age stratum. The importance of PTSD diagnosis as a predictor of the ICD-9 categories of disease or chronic conditions seemed to increase with age. In the younger age stratum, the increased bivariate ORs of significant associations with PTSD ranged from 1.4 for digestive disorders to 3.4 for circulatory disorders. Among younger girls, PTSD diagnosis was associated with significantly greater bivariate odds for 9 of the 12 ICD-9 categories of disease but not for neoplasms, blood disorders, or respiratory disorders and with threefold increased odds for chronic fatigue. They also had 1.8 times greater odds for sexually transmitted infections, some of which could be from congenital transmission in this age group, which includes infants. In the multivariate models for the young girls, the mental health variable seemed to mediate the relationship between victimization and increased odds of infectious and parasitic diseases, endocrine/metabolic/immune disorders, circulatory diseases, skin and cutaneous tissue disorders, and having any 1 of the 5 chronic conditions. The mental health categories that were significantly associated with health outcomes varied across the conditions. There were no health outcomes in which the depression-without-PTSD category was the only one significantly associated with the outcome condition. Circulatory and musculoskeletal disorders were significantly associated with all 3 of the mental health categories. Having any 1 of the 5 chronic conditions was significantly associated only with simple PTSD (PTSD without depression). Genitourinary disorders and signs/symptoms/ill-defined conditions were significantly associated with both simple and comorbid PTSD. PTSD with comorbid depression, the most severe of the mental health categories in this younger age group, was the only category associated with the endocrine/metabolic/immune disorders and skin disorders outcomes. In the adolescent age stratum, the bivariate ORs significantly associated with PTSD ranged from 2.1 for blood disorders to 5.2 for irritable bowel syndrome. Adolescents with PTSD were nearly twice as likely to have a sexually transmitted infection and 60% more likely to have cervical dysplasia. However, their rate of pregnancy was lower (23% vs 31%), a one-fourth decreased odds. In the adolescent group, only 4 outcomes (nervous system/sense organ, digestive, and genitourinary disorders and signs/symptoms/ill-defined conditions) remained statistically significantly associated with victimization after the mental health variable was added, suggesting an additive model of risk for these outcomes but a mediating role for PTSD in relation to the majority of the health outcomes. Among the adolescent girls, the range of ORs for the ICD-9 and chronic-condition diagnoses generally increased across the categories of the mental health variable in a dose-response pattern. Compared with adolescents with neither PTSD nor depression, those with PTSD without depression had statistically significant ORs from 1.5 to 3.6. Those with depression without PTSD had statistically significant ORs from 1.9 to 4.4. The significant ORs for those with PTSD comorbid with depression were from 2.3 to 6.6, and those in the complex-PTSD category had significant ORs of between 2.5 and 14.9. Only blood disorders seemed to be more strongly associated with depression alone than with the comorbid and complex forms of PTSD. The simple-PTSD category was not significantly associated with blood disorders, chronic pelvic pain, fibromyalgia, or dysmenorrhea. Depression without PTSD was not significantly associated with chronic pelvic pain or fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia was only significantly associated with complex PTSD. CONCLUSIONS: In young girls who receive Medicaid benefits, PTSD was associated with increased odds of a range of adverse health conditions. The pattern and odds of physical comorbidity among adolescent recipients with PTSD was nearly as extensive as that seen in adult women. Overall, the pattern observed suggests that objective disease states (eg, circulatory problems, infections) may be associated with PTSD to an extent nearly as great as that of PTSD with more subjective somatic experience of loss of wellness. Using the concepts of allostatic load and allostatic support, professionals who work with children and adolescents may be able to decrease the toll that traumatic stress takes on health even if available interventions can only be thought of as supportive and fall short of completely preventing trauma exposure or completely healing posttraumatic stress. Clinical research to extend these exploratory findings is warranted.

Adolescent↗

"El duende" and other incubi. Suggestive interactions between culture, the devil, and the brain.

The belief in persecution or possession by evil sprits is still popular in Latin American countries. Observations were made on 12 Columbian families who were haunted by 'el duende' (a special kind of imp, goblin, or poltergeist) and other spirits. Interviews elicited a detailed account of events, a demographic and socioeconomic description ofthe families, exploration of the psyhosocial antecedents, and a psychiatric evaluation of individual members of the group regared as key persons. Possible psychodynamic mechanisms are involved in the production of the phenomenon and factors in the successful 'therapeutic'interventions of spiritualist rather than psychiatric or religious healers. The interaction of culture , folk belief, and the brain impaired by lesion or faulty learning appears as the important accountable dimension.

Adolescent↗

On the early history of male hysteria and psychic trauma. Charcot's influence on Freudian thought.

This paper discusses the influence of Jean-Martin Charcot's views on Sigmund Freud's early theory of hysteria and the notion of psychical trauma. We consider the early history of both psychical trauma and male hysteria, for in Charcot's view traumatic hysteria and male hysteria are identical. Freud's two 1886 lectures on male hysteria, delivered after his return from Paris, are crucial to the subject because they present Freud's first impressions of Charcot and his teaching. Some of the ideas presented in the two lectures foreshadow Freud's later generalization of the etiological role of trauma and his theory of the role of psychical trauma in the genesis of hysteria; that is, each hysterical symptom is due to a psychical trauma reviving an earlier traumatic event--the so-called principle of deferred action (Nachträglichkeit). Several arguments substantiate the thesis that Freud's notion of psychical (sexual) trauma was developed in reference to Charcot's notion of traumatic hysteria, and that the early psychoanalytic theory of psychical trauma is clearly indebted to Freud's encounter with Charcot's male traumatic hysterical patients. The discussed Freudian development points out the major role of (physical) traumata in eliciting psychopathological pictures and in this way is of definite historical relevance for the present-day discussion on the traumatic nature of the so-called multiple personality syndrome and other dissociative disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorders.

Austria↗

Counteridentification, comprehensive countertransference, and therapeutic action: toward resolving the intrapsychic-interactional dichotomy.

Two dichotomous trends in thinking about countertransference and therapeutic action can be delineated historically as well as in clinical practice: the intrapsychic and the interactional. The author proposes a new usage of the concepts of counteridentification and comprehensive countertransference to help transform these dichotomizing tendencies into more useful, integrative therapeutic action across the broad spectrum of psychoanalytic treatment for patients from the neurotic to the most severely disturbed.

Adult↗

[Personality disorders and psychopathology following trauma. Reflection on diagnostic classification].

Pervasive personality disorders have been shown to be long-term sequelae of cumulative childhood physical and sexual traumatization. This finding is not reflected in DSM-IV and ICD-10 classifications where post-traumatic stress disorder is confined to intrusions, avoidance, numbing, and hyperarousal. However, there is growing evidence that trauma etiology should be taken into account in planning treatment for personality disorders. It is not yet clear whether childhood traumatization is more strongly associated with borderline personality disorder than with other personality disorders. The finding of a substantial overlap between borderline personality disorder and dissociative identity disorder gives rise to discussions concerning the relationship of these two pathologies.

Adult↗

[Experimental detection of inadequate affect regulation in patients with self-mutilating behavior].

According to DSM-IV affective instability in borderline personality disorder is due to marked reactions to environmental events. The aim of this study was to investigate affective responsiveness of abnormal personalities with self-harming impulsive behaviors by means of an affect-stimulation design. The first experiment was based on the presentation of a short story that allowed affective responses to various stimuli to be assessed in regard to quality, intensity, and alterations over time. The second one presented a typical frustration design, which provoked specific feelings of anger and disappointment. Impulsive personalities showed an affective hyperreactivity that was characterized by a decreased threshold for affective responses, as well as by intensive, rapidly changing affects. Furthermore, affect experiences turned out to be qualitatively diffuse and undifferentiated. Results support that affective instability of patients with borderline personality disorder should be differentiated from the autonomous deviations of mood typical of affective disorders. Their affective hyperreactivity is a crucial part of impulsive personality functioning.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

[Identity measurement with the Frankfurt self concept scales and their relationship to parental bonding].

Psychiatric inpatients and nonpatients were compared using the Frankfurt Self-Concept Scales (FSKN). Firstly, we tried to validate FSKN as a measure of identity using the DSM-III-R identity rating as an external criterion. Then the FSKN ratings of patients and nonpatients were compared. Lastly, we correlated individual FSKN ratings with certain demographic variables, clinical diagnoses, and the two dimensions of the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI). All FSKN scores of patients with identity disorders differentiated significantly from those without identity disorder, thus confirming FSKN validity. The most significant differences were found in practically all FSKN results comparing patients with nonpatients of both sexes, always in favor of nonpatients. Male patients presented better self-concepts than female patients, whereas practically no significant relationships were found between FSKN scales and sex in nonpatients or between FSKN, vocational category, and diagnosis. Also, the relationship between the scales and age appears to be slight, showing positive in patients and negative in nonpatients. Many significant correlations were found between FSKN scales and PBI dimensions which were negative between the scales and PBI "control" and positive between the scales and PBI "care", both especially in men with regard to their relationship with the father.

Adult↗