The expectancy of threat and peritraumatic dissociation

BACKGROUND Peritraumatic dissociation is one of the most critical acute responses to a traumatic experience, partly because it predicts subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder. Despite this, there is little understanding about the factors that influence peritraumatic dissociation. This study investigated the extent to which peritraumatic dissociation is predicted by the amount of perceived warning that participants had of the impact of the trauma. METHOD Randomized eligible admissions to four major trauma hospitals (N=243) were assessed during hospital admission with the Peritraumatic Dissociation Experiences Questionnaire (PDEQ) and the perceived warning that participants had before the trauma impact occurred. RESULTS Whereas female gender predicted both Awareness and Derealization subscale scores on the PDEQ, perceived warning also predicted scores on the Derealization subscale. CONCLUSIONS This finding suggests that the degree of anticipated threat may contribute to peritraumatic dissociation.