Academic literature on the topic 'Dissociative Experiences Scale-II'

Verification of dissociative identity disorder presents challenges given the complex nature of the illness. This study addressed the concern that this disorder can be successfully malingered on objective and projective psychological tests. 50 undergraduate women were assigned to a Malingering or a Control condition, then completed the Rorschach Inkblot Test and the Dissociative Experiences Scale II. The Malingering group were asked to simulate dissociative identity disorder; controls received instructions to answer all materials honestly. Analysis indicated that malingerers were significantly more likely to endorse dissociative experiences on the Dissociative Experiences Scale II in the range common to patients with diagnosed dissociative identity disorder. However, on the Rorschach there were no significant differences between the two groups. Results suggest that the assessment of dissociative identity disorder requires a multifaceted approach with both objective and projective assessment tools. Research is needed to assess these issues in clinical populations.

Psychometric aspects of the Dissociative Experiences Scale-II were studied with 308 American community college students. The overall DES mean was 21.70. Item-corrected correlations ranged from .30 to .62. The scale's Cronbach Alpha was .92. There were no significant correlations between DES scores and sex or religiosity. Age was negatively and significantly correlated to DES scores ( r = -.24). A factor analysis showed only a single factor. Descriptive statistics of the DES-T were also presented. We obtained a mean of 13.81 and a Cronbach Alpha of .75. The DES-T was significantly correlated to the rest of the scale ( r = .79), and to the age of the participants ( r = -.22). The findings show that the DES II has good inner consistency.

Background Dissociative experiences occur across a range of mental health disorders. However, the term ‘dissociation’ has long been argued to lack conceptual clarity and may describe several distinct phenomena. We therefore aimed to conceptualise and empirically establish a discrete subset of dissociative experiences and develop a corresponding assessment measure. Methods First, a systematic review of existing measures was carried out to identify themes across dissociative experiences. A theme of ‘Felt Sense of Anomaly’ (FSA) emerged. Second, assessment items were generated based on this construct and a measure developed using exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analyses of 8861 responses to an online self-report survey. Finally, the resulting measure was validated via CFA with data from 1031 patients with psychosis. Results ‘Felt sense of anomaly’ (FSA) was identified as common to many dissociative experiences, affecting several domains (e.g. body) and taking different forms (‘types’; e.g. unfamiliarity). Items for a novel measure were therefore systematically generated using a conceptual framework whereby each item represented a type-by-domain interaction (e.g. ‘my body feels unfamiliar’). Factor analysis of online responses found that FSA-dissociation manifested in seven ways: anomalous experiences of the self, body, and emotion, and altered senses of familiarity, connection, agency, and reality (Χ2 (553) = 4989.435, p<0.001, CFI = 0.929, TLI = 0.924, RMSEA = 0.052, SRMR = 0.047). Additionally, a single-factor ‘global FSA’ scale was produced (Χ2 (9) = 312.350, p<0.001, CFI = 0.970, TLI = 0.950, RMSEA = 0.107, SRMR = 0.021). Model fit was adequate in the clinical (psychosis) group (Χ2 (553) = 1623.641, p<0.001, CFI = 0.927, TLI = 0.921, RMSEA = 0.043, SRMR = 0.043). The scale had good convergent validity with a widely used dissociation scale (DES-II) (non-clinical: r = 0.802), excellent internal reliability (non-clinical: Cronbach’s alpha = 0.98; clinical: Cronbach’s alpha = 0.97), and excellent test-retest reliability (non-clinical: ICC = 0.92). Further, in non-clinical respondents scoring highly on a PTSD measure, CFA confirmed adequate model fit (Χ2 (553) = 4758.673, CFI = 0.913, TLI = 0.906, RMSEA = 0.052, SRMR = 0.054). Conclusions The Černis Felt Sense of Anomaly (ČEFSA) scale is a novel measure of a subset of dissociative experiences that share a core feature of FSA. It is psychometrically robust in both non-clinical and psychosis groups.

IntroductionIn the last decade, accumulating evidence has been produced on the role of dissociation in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Understanding which dissociation dimensions are specific to OCD could suggest the integration of therapeutic strategies for dissociation in the treatment of patients with OCD.ObjectivesThe current study explored the role of dissociation in a sample of patients with OCD, patients with anxiety disorders and healthy controls with the aim to understand which dissociation dimensions could be specific to OCD.MethodOne hundred seventy-one participants were included in the study (56% females, mean age = 35.96, SD = 12.61), of which 52 were patients with primary OCD, 59 were patients with Anxiety Disorders (AD), and 60 were healthy controls. The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) were administered.ResultsPatients with OCD had significantly higher dissociative amnesia symptoms than patients with AD and health controls (F = 6.08, P < 0.01) and higher depersonalization/derealization symptoms than healthy controls but not than patients with AD. Patients with OCD did not report significantly higher dissociative absorption than healthy controls and patients with AD.ConclusionsStrategies targeting dissociative amnesia and depersonalization/derealization symptoms in OCD are discussed. Future studies should examine which OCD subtypes are more strongly associated to dissociation dimensions.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.