Dissociative Disorders Quiz: Memory, Identity, and Consciousness

Dissociative Disorders

• Alterations in memory, identity, and consciousness are common characteristics
• Can last months or years
• Often associated with traumatic childhood experiences, but not always
• Abnormal hippocampus function is a factor

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

• Characterized by two or more distinct identities or personalities
• Results from severe trauma, causing shattering of identity
• Host (main identity) and alters (splintered personalities) exist
• Trouble recalling autobiographical memories is a challenge

Dissociative Amnesia

• Previously known as psychogenic amnesia
• Caused by psychological factors, not physical
• Dissociative Amnesia with Fugue: person leaves their current situation and takes on a new identity

Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder

• Symptoms include feelings of detachment from self or surroundings
• Can occur during anxiety or panic attacks
• Person feels a lack of control and disconnected from reality
• Depersonalization: feeling like an outside observer of one's body
• Derealization: feeling detached from surroundings

Treatment

• Focuses on coping with stress and depression
• Integrating altered personalities into one

Stress and Illness

• Prolonged stress can lead to physical illnesses
• Stress-induced experiments with mice demonstrate this concept

Psychophysiological Disorders

• Not a DSM-5 disorder
• When no biological cause is found, psychological causes are explored
• Social factors contribute to disorders like headaches, cardiovascular disorders, cancers, and gastrointestinal disorders

Somatic Symptoms and Related Disorders

• People experience physical symptoms with no physical cause
• Somatic means body-related
• Symptoms are real, not faked or imagined
• Problem: no physical explanation for symptoms, only psychological

Somatic Symptom Disorder

• One or more distressing somatic symptoms disrupt daily life
• Anxious thoughts about symptoms, excessive time spent on health concerns
• Duration: more than 6 months
• Specify if with predominant pain (e.g., leg, back, or shoulder pain)

Illness Anxiety Disorder (Hypochondriasis)

• Preoccupation with having a serious illness
• High anxiety about health
• Excessive health-related behaviors
• Duration: at least 6 months

Conversion Disorder (Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder)

• Rare disorder with rapid onset of symptoms
• Altered voluntary motor or sensory function (not faked, but real)
• Psychological cause, not physical
• Symptoms include paralysis or altered vision or hearing