Citation

Webermann AR, Myrick AC, Taylor CL, Chasson GS, Brand BL. J. Trauma Dissociation 2015; 17(1): 67-80.

Affiliation

a Towson University , Towson , MD.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15299732.2015.1067941

PMID

26211678

Abstract

The present study investigates whether symptom severity can distinguish patients diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID) and dissociative disorder not otherwise specified (DDNOS) with a recent history of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicide attempts from those without recent self-harm. Two hundred forty one clinicians reported on recent history of patient NSSI and suicide attempts. Two hundred twenty-one of these clinicians' patients completed dissociative, depressive, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology measures. Baseline cross-sectional data from a naturalistic and prospective study of dissociative disorder (DD) patients receiving community treatment was utilized. Analyses evaluated dissociative, depressive, and PTSD symptom severity as methods of classifying patients into NSSI and suicide attempt groupings.

RESULTS indicated that dissociation severity accurately classified patients into NSSI and suicidality groups, while depression severity accurately classified patients into NSSI groups. These findings point to dissociation and depression severity as important correlates of NSSI and suicidality in patients with DDs, and have implications for self-harm prevention and treatment.

Language: en