Patterns of dissociation in clinical and nonclinical samples

Abstract

Research has consistently found elevated mean dissociation scores in particular diagnostic groups. In this study, we explored whether mean dissociation scores for different diagnostic groups resulted from uniform distributions of scores within the group or were a function of the proportion of highly dissociative patients that the diagnostic group contained. A total of 1566 subjects who were psychiatric patients, neurological patients, normal adolescents, or normal adult subjects completed the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES). An analysis of the percentage of subjects with high DES scores in each diagnostic group indicated that the diagnostic group's mean DES scores were a function of the proportion of subjects within the group who were high dissociators. The results contradict a continuum model of dissociation but are consistent with the existence of distinct dissociative types.