OBJECTIVE This study assessed the prevalence of pathological dissociation in the general population, and the relationship between pathological dissociation and sociodemographic and several psychiatric variables. METHOD The stratified population sample consisted of 2001 subjects. The study questionnaires included the Dissociative Experiences Scale, the Dissociative Experiences Scale-Taxon, the...

This special section of the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law focuses on stress, trauma, and dissociative experiences in the context of forensic psychiatry. The deleterious effects of stress and traumatic experiences on mental health are well known to mental health professionals. Traumatic experiences of sufficient intensity may cause the development of specific mental h...

The 20-item Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire (SDQ-20; Nijenhuis, Spinhoven, Van Dyck, Van der Hart, & Vanderlinden, 1996) evaluates the severity of somatoform dissociation. The SDQ-20 items were derived from a pool of 75 items describing clinically observed somatoform dissociative symptoms that in clinical settings had appeared upon reactivation of particular dissociative parts of the pers...

Anabolic and catabolic signaling oppose one another in adipose tissue to maintain cellular and organismal homeostasis, but these pathways are often dysregulated in metabolic disorders. Although it has long been established that stimulation of the β-adrenergic receptor inhibits insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in adipocytes, the mechanism has remained unclear. Here we report that β-adrenergic-m...

Women survivors of rape are at an increased risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Traumatic dissociation has been identified as a precursor of PTSD. This study assessed the predictive potential of traumatic dissociation in PTSD and depression development.The study followed a longitudinal, prospective design. Ninety-seven female rape survivors were recruited from 2 clinics in Cape Town,...

Inadequate processing of trauma information is considered to lead to particularly vivid recollections and disorganized memories of the trauma. Although trauma memories have mainly been investigated in PTSD, memories in other psychiatric disorders may actually share some characteristics. This may particularly be true for patients with panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA) as a first panic attack...

Little is known about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among pathological gamblers (PGs), even though the two disorders share several clinical characteristics. We examined the relationship between pathological gambling and PTSD on measures of gambling disorder severity, experience of specific traumas, psychiatric symptoms, impulsivity, and dissociation. A total of 149 treatment-seeking PGs ...

Dyspnea may be defined as an uncomfortable sensation of breathing. The sense of respiratory effort, chemoreceptor stimulation, mechanical stimuli arising in lung and chest wall receptors, and neuroventilatory dissociation may all contribute to the sensation of dyspnea. Different mechanisms likely give rise to qualitatively different sensations of dyspnea. In most patients, dyspnea is probably d...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs when significant intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptoms are manifest for at least 1 month following exposure to a traumatic event, with at least 1 month following exposure to a traumatic event, with at least 1 month elapsed betwenn the event and the diagnossis (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, 1994 [DSM-IV])...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this analysis was to examine quality of life and dissociation in anxiety disorder subjects with histories of trauma, some of whom met criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHOD Subjects came from a prospective, longitudinal study of anxiety disorders. Information was gathered on role, social life, suicide attempts, psychiatric hospitalization, alcohol a...