psychiatric disorders
Overview of Dissociative Disorders
Introduction
Many people occasionally experience a failure in the normal automatic integration of memories, perceptions, identity, and consciousness. For example, people may drive somewhere and then realize that they do not remember many aspects of the drive because they were preoccupied with personal concerns, a program on the radio, or conversation with a passenger. Typically, such a failure, referred to as nonpathologic dissociation, does not disrupt everyday activities. In contrast, people with a dissociative disorder may totally forget a series of normal behaviors occupying minutes, hours, days, or weeks and may sense a missing period of time in their experience. In dissociative disorders, the normal integration of consciousness, memory, perceptions, identity, emotion, body representation, motor control, and behavior is disrupted, and continuity of self is lost. People with a dissociative disorder may experience the following: Unbidden intrusions into awareness with loss of continuity of experience, including feelings of detachment from self ( Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder ) and/or the surroundings ( Memory loss for important personal information ( Dissociative Amnesia ) Dissociative disorders frequently develop after overwhelming stress ( General references ). Such stress may be generated by traumatic events or by intolerable inner conflict. Dissociative disorders are related to Brain research in animals and humans has begun to identify specific brain structures and functions underlying dissociation. In particular, during dissociation rhythmic activity occurs in a deep posteromedial region, including the posterior cingulate cortex, that is disconnected from higher cortical regions responsible for thought and planning ( General references ). Similarly, during 