Dissociative disorders can be a difficult set of disorders to diagnose due to their significant comorbidities and overlap with other psychiatric and medical diagnoses. Studies show a range of inpatient prevalences of 5% to 21% with outpatient prevalences ranging from 12% to 29%, which highlights the difficulty in accurate diagnosis (Brand et. al 2009). Dissociative disorders are shown to have significant comorbidity with multiple other psychiatric disorders that should be screened for including depression, borderline personality disorder, social anxiety, and somatization disorders (Evren et. al 2007) (Evren et. More research needs to be done with dissociative populations to draw more firm conclusions, but many correlations have been gathered. Special populations that should be considered in relation to dissociative disorders include suicidal/self-mutilating, traumatized, eating disordered, substance abusing, and pediatric groups. Suicidal and Self-Mutilating Populations [ edit | edit source] Both suicide attempts and self-mutilating behavior fall into the broader category of self-harm.
2013. The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction | National Institute on Drug Abuse. [online] Available at: [Accessed: 18 Oct 2013]. ↑ [2], 2013. Drug Abuse and Addiction: Signs, Symptoms, and Help for Drug Problems and Substance Abuse. [online] Available at: [Accessed: 18 Oct 2013].. ↑ [3], 2013. Drugs Alter the Brain's Reward Pathway. [online] Available at: [Accessed: 18 Oct 2013]. ↑ [4], Meeusen, R. and De Meirleir, K. 1995. Exercise and Brain Neurotransmission. Sports Med, 20 pp. 160-188. Available at: [Accessed: 21/10/13]. ↑ [5], Smith, M. and Lynch, W. 2011. Exercise as a potential treatment for drug abuse: evidence from preclinical studies. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2.. ↑ [6], J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1992 April; 55(4): 247–250. ↑ [7], 2013. The Double Demons of Depression and Addiction. [online] Available at: [Accessed: 18 Oct 2013]. ↑ [8], Petruzzello, S. J., Landers, D. M., Hatfield, B. D., Kubitz, K. A., Salazar, W. (1991), 'A meta-analysis on the anxiety-reducing effects of acute and chronic exercise.
This confers no increased risk of dissociative disorders among alcohol dependent inpatients (Evren et al. 2005). The reason for the difference seen between alcohol versus drug dependence is not known. However, both studies show that dissociative symptoms were present in a majority of the population before alcohol or drug use, 90% and 59. 3% respectively (Evren et al. 2005)(Tamar-Gurol, 2008). This emphasizes the importance of screening for dissociative symptoms to potentially help prevent the progression to substance abuse or dependence. Pediatric Population [ edit | edit source] Though pediatric populations are not frequently diagnosed with dissociative disorders, this subgroup may experience the trauma later associated with dissociative diagnoses. One study of drug dependent patients evaluated several variables between groups with dissociative disorders and those without them. Aside from suicide attempts, the only variable to reach statistical significance for increased risk for dissociative diagnoses was emotional abuse taking place during childhood (Tamar-Gurol, 2008).