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Memory transfer for emotionally valenced words between identities in dissociative identity disorder.

The present study aimed to determine interidentity retrieval of emotionally valenced words in dissociative identity disorder (DID). Twenty-two DID patients participated together with 25 normal controls and 25 controls instructed to simulate DID. Two wordlists A and B were constructed including neutral, positive and negative material. List A was shown to one identity, while list B was shown to another identity claiming total amnesia for the words learned by the first identity. The identity claiming amnesia was tested for intrusions from list A words into the recall of words from list B and recognition of the words learned by both identities. Test results indicated no evidence of total interidentity amnesia for emotionally valenced material in DID. It is argued that dissociative amnesia in DID may more adequately be described as a disturbance in meta-memory functioning instead of an actual retrieval inability.

Adult↗

An examination of the diagnostic validity of dissociative identity disorder.

We review the empirical evidence for the validity of the Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) diagnosis, the vast majority of which has come from research conducted within the last 10 years. After reviewing three different guidelines to establish diagnostic validity, we conclude that considerable converging evidence supports the inclusion of DID in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. For instance, DID appears to meet all of the guidelines for inclusion and none of the exclusion guidelines; proposed by Blashfield et al. [Comprehensive Psychiatry 31 (1990) 15-19], and it is one of the few disorders currently supported by taxometric research. However, we also discuss possible problems with the current diagnostic criteria and offer recommendations, based on recent research, for possible revisions to these criteria.

Adult↗

Inter-identity amnesia in dissociative identity disorder: a simulated memory impairment?

BACKGROUND: Although included in the current edition of the DSM, there does not seem to be consensus among mental health professionals regarding the diagnostic status and scientific validity of dissociative identity disorder (DID). This study was aimed at the detection of simulation of inter-identity amnesia in DID. METHOD: A sample of 22 DID patients was included, together with a matched control sample of subjects instructed to simulate inter-identity amnesia, a guessor group that had no knowledge of the stimulus material and a normal control group. A multiple-choice recognition test was included. The rate of incorrect answers was determined. Moreover, the specific simulation strategy used was examined by providing subjects with a range of choices that varied in extent of disagreement with the correct answer and determining whether plausible or implausible answer alternatives were selected. RESULTS: On the recognition test DID patients selected incorrect answers above chance like simulators. Patients thus seem to use their knowledge of the correct answer in determining their given answer. They were not characterized by a well-thought-out simulating behaviour style, as indicated by the differences in selection of specific answer alternatives found between patients and simulators. CONCLUSIONS: DID patients were found not to be characterized by an actual memory retrieval inability, in contrast to their subjective reports. Instead, it is suggested that DID may more accurately be considered a disorder characterized by meta-memory problems, holding incorrect beliefs about their own memory functioning.

Adult↗

Comment on the effectiveness of treatment for dissociative identity disorder.

Methodological criticisms of a recent study on treatment outcome of dissociative identity disorder are accurate: however, the outcome study is more methodologically sound than any previous work and therefore advances the field. The design of other studies and the conclusions to be drawn from the study under discussion are reviewed.

Bias↗

Perceptual and conceptual priming in patients with dissociative identity disorder.

The present study examined implicit memory transfer in patients with dissociative identity disorder (DID). To determine priming impairments in DID, we included both several perceptual priming tasks and a conceptual priming task using neutral material. We tested a large sample of DID patients (n = 31), in addition to 25 controls and 25 DID simulators, comparable on sex, age, and education. Controls replicated conceptual priming results of Vriezen, Moscovitch, and Bellos (1995) by showing that conceptual priming seems to require the formation of domain-specific semantic representations, denoting either sensory or functional object attributes. We extended a study performed by Schacter, Cooper, and Delaney (1990) by demonstrating priming for impossible object using the sensitive priming index of response times. The simulators in the study were not able to simulate interidentity amnesia on the implicit memory tasks employed. Partly in contrast to participants in previous studies, DID patients showed evidence of perceptual priming as well as conceptual priming comparable to that of controls. DID patients thus displayed normal implicit memory performance.

Adult↗

Kidney transplantation and liaison psychiatry, part II: A case of dissociative identity disorder.

The authors examined the case of an adolescent patient with dissociative identity disorder secondary to psychological shock of a transplant rejection response. Psychiatric symptoms consisted of three components: visual hallucinations and delusions as a psychological defense against the anxiety of a transplant rejection; appearance of three personalities including proper self, the dead child (donor), and a prophet with strong predicting power; and a twilight state. These psychiatric symptoms may have been related to two psychological factors: immature personality characteristics formed during hemodialysis, and post-traumatic stress caused by a chronic rejection reaction from the patient's first transplant.

Adolescent↗

Using the SCID-D to assess dissociative identity disorder in adolescents: three case studies.

The authors report on the diagnostic assessment of dissociative identity disorder in three adolescents using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders (SCID-D; Steinberg, 1993b), a semistructured instrument for the diagnosis and assessment of dissociative symptoms and disorders. Although the SCID-D has received good-to-excellent ratings for reliability and validity in the adult population, these three cases are the first reports of the results of its administration to younger patients. Comparison of the three adolescent SCID-D interviews with findings in adults indicates that the profiles of the five dissociative symptoms measured by the SCID-D are virtually identical in adolescents and adults. The authors conclude with suggestions for future research regarding dissociative symptomatology in adolescents and outcome studies.

Adolescent↗

Case study: is selective mutism a manifestation of dissociative identity disorder?

Selective mutism is a rare psychiatric disorder that usually has its onset in early childhood. This case study describes a patient in whom selective mutism developed in adolescence. It was later discovered that he had dissociative identity disorder. The study documents his history, which included violence, abuse, and threats to keep silent. The study suggests that in cases presenting with significant trauma or abuse, selective mutism may be a manifestation of dissociative identity disorder.

Adolescent↗

Toward an etiology of dissociative identity disorder: a neurodevelopmental approach.

This article elaborates on Putnam's "discrete behavioral states" model of dissociative identity disorder (Putnam, 1997) by proposing the involvement of the orbitalfrontal cortex in the development of DID and suggesting a potential neurodevelopmental mechanism responsible for the development of multiple representations of self. The proposed "orbitalfrontal" model integrates and elaborates on theory and research from four domains: the neurobiology of the orbitalfrontal cortex and its protective inhibitory role in the temporal organization of behavior, the development of emotion regulation, the development of the self, and experience-dependent reorganizing neocortical processes. The hypothesis being proposed is that the experience-dependent maturation of the orbitalfrontal cortex in early abusive environments, characterized by discontinuity in dyadic socioaffective interactions between the infant and the caregiver, may be responsible for a pattern of lateral inhibition between conflicting subsets of self-representations which are normally integrated into a unified self. The basic idea is that the discontinuity in the early caretaking environment is manifested in the discontinuity in the organization of the developing child's self.

Affect↗

Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory--II. Follow-up of patients with dissociative identity disorder.

This study is part of a two-year follow-up assessment of 35 out of 96 patients clinically diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, who were administered the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II. Eight subjects achieved integration during the two-year follow-up period. Significant improvement was evident for raw scores on the Self-defeating, Borderline, Paranoid, Anxiety, Somatoform, Dysthymia, Alcohol Dependence, and Drug Dependent scales among both the integrated and nonintegrated patients, with clinically meaningful Base Rate reductions occurring on Self-defeating, Borderline, Avoidant, Passive-Aggressive, Anxiety, Dysthymia, and Major Depression scales following integration. Although Dissociative Identity Disorder presents with polysymptomatology, much treatment progress can be achieved during pre-integration and dramatic improvement follows integration.

Adult↗

Assessing markers of working memory function in dissociative identity disorder using neutral stimuli: a comparison with clinical and general population samples.

OBJECTIVES: Memory functioning is a central conceptual and phenomenological aspect of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Most empirical work on memory functions in DID has focused on retrieval deficits either within or between dissociated identities. The current study attempted to remedy the scant attention given to working memory functioning. METHOD: In samples representing the DID, non-clinical, depressed, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychosis populations (n = 10 per group), neutral stimuli were used to examine three markers of working memory functioning: one measuring inhibition; one assessing facilitation; and one measuring interference. RESULTS: With the exception of the psychosis sample all groups displayed significant negative priming in the distractor inhibition condition. Facilitation effects were demonstrated by the DID and PTSD groups only. Interference effects were evident in all samples, though the DID and non-clinical groups demonstrated significantly more interference than the psychosis cohort. Distractor inhibition was related to overall schizotypy scores, and dissociation was related to scores in the facilitation condition. CONCLUSIONS: The DID sample displayed a completely distinct functional working memory profile to the psychosis sample when assessed with emotionally neutral stimuli. However, the working memory profile in the DID sample was not entirely dissimilar to the other comparison groups.

Adolescent↗

Cognitive inhibition and interference in dissociative identity disorder: the effects of anxiety on specific executive functions.

Using an experimentally based, computer-presented task, this study assessed cognitive inhibition and interference in individuals from the dissociative identity disorder (DID; n=12), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; n=12) and non-clinical (n=12) populations. Participants were assessed in a neutral and emotionally negative (anxiety provoking) context, manipulated by experimental instructions and word stimuli. The DID sample displayed effective cognitive inhibition in the neutral but not the anxious context. The GAD sample displayed the opposite findings. However, the interaction between group and context failed to reach significance. There was no indication of an attentional bias to non-schema specific negative words in any sample. Results are discussed in terms of the potential benefit of weakened cognitive inhibition during anxious arousal in dissociative individuals.

Adolescent↗

Memory fragmentation in dissociative identity disorder.

This study examined the quality of self-reported memories of traumatic experiences in participants with dissociative identity disorder (DID) and compared them with their memories of non-traumatic, but emotionally significant life experiences. Systematic interview data were gathered from 30 DID patients in The Netherlands. All participants reported a history of severe childhood abuse; 93.3% reported some period of amnesia for the index traumatic event, and 33.3% reported periods of amnesia for significant non-traumatic childhood experiences. All participants who had been amnestic for their trauma reported that their memories were initially retrieved in the form of somatosensory flashbacks. This suggests that, like PTSD patients, DID patients at least initially recall their trauma not as a narrative, but as somatosensory re-experiencing. Surprisingly, however, DID participants also recalled emotionally charged non-traumatic life events with significant somatosensory components, a phenomenon that has not been previously reported. This finding raises important issues regarding basic memory processing abnormalities in DID patients.

Adult↗

The effect of emotional context on cognitive inhibition and attentional processing in dissociative identity disorder.

In light of previous research, the current study tested the hypothesis that dissociative identity disorder (DID) would be characterised by effective cognitive inhibitory functioning when tested in a neutral context, but weakened inhibition when tested in an emotionally negative context. Using a negative priming task (i.e. the flanker task) to assess inhibitory ability 11 DID, 11 depressed, and 11 general population participants were tested in the two differing experimental contexts. The contexts were manipulated by instructions and word stimuli, and following the completion of this task participants completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale and the Schizotypal Personality Scale. DID participants displayed a greater degree of self-reported anxiety in the negative context and as expected displayed a reduction in inhibition in this context but not in the neutral context. The degree of negative priming for the depressed and general population samples remained stable across contexts as did their anxiety levels. The DID sample displayed slower response times to negative compared to neutral words but this attentional bias was not evident for the two comparison groups. The relationship between increased arousal, inhibitory functioning, dissociation and information processing in DID is discussed.

Adult↗

Caring for alcoholic patients with dissociative identity disorder.

Nursing care of the alcoholic patient becomes multifaceted and complex with the presence of a psychiatric-mental health disorder. Although issues surrounding dual-diagnosis patients have been addressed in the literature, there is a paucity of research and theory regarding care of the patient who has both alcoholism and dissociative identity disorder. This article presents a synthesis of the nursing literature with the author's experience to elucidate factors that enhance healing. Nursing interventions that are unique and sensitive for the alcoholic patient with dissociative identity disorder are discussed.

Alcoholics Anonymous↗

The effects of hypnosis on dissociative identity disorder: a reexamination of the evidence.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the possibility that hypnosis has significant iatrogenic effects on dissociative identity disorder (DID). METHOD: This paper reexamines previously published data that have been interpreted as indicating that hypnosis does not exert significant iatrogenic effects on DID. RESULTS: The use of hypnosis is associated with differences in DID phenomenology and number of DID patients in treatment. CONCLUSION: Hypnosis may have significant iatrogenic effects on DID.

Dissociative Identity Disorder↗

Dissociative identity disorder and memory dysfunction: the current state of experimental research and its future directions.

Memory dysfunction is a central feature of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Following the memorial anomalies outlined by Putnam [Putnam, F. W. (1994). Dissociation and disturbances of self. In: D. Cicchetti & S. L. Toth (Eds.), Disorders and dysfunctions of the self, vol. 5 (pp. 251-265). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press; Putnam, F. W. (1995). Development of dissociative disorders. In: D. Chicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology, vol. 2 (pp. 581-608). New York: Wiley], the experimental research using DID case studies and samples is reviewed. As a whole, research suggests that amnesic barriers between alter personalities are typically impervious to explicit stimuli, as well as conceptually driven implicit stimuli. Autobiographical memory deficits are also experimentally evident in DID. Although no experimental studies have addressed the issue of source amnesia or pseudomemories, there is some evidence that pseudomemories are an infrequent but real phenomenon in DID patients. Finally, potential deficits in working memory are outlined, including those relating to cognitive inhibition. Research directions are discussed throughout to further elucidate the nature of memory dysfunction in DID.

Cognition↗