Objective: In this study we aimed to investigate the diagnostic distribution of dissociative disorder and subgroup of dissociative disorder not otherwise specified (DD-NOS).
Method: Our study was performed in two phases. In the first phase the patients were screened with DES (dissociative experience scale) and SDQ (somatoform dissociation questionnaire). The patients whose test score were above cut off (DES>30 and/or SDQ>40), were asked to leave their phone number for the second phase. After the first phase the patients were called for the second phase and DDIS (dissociative disorder interview scale) was performed to the same resident.
Results: In the first phase, we planned to reach about 2000 patients between the dates 01.12.2010-01.09.2011, but there were 534 cases excluded from the study due to exclusion criteria, while 152 cases didn’t admit filling out the scales of the study; thus we could have reached 1314 cases in this phase. Of the 1314 participants who completed the DES, there were 272 participants (20.70%) with scores above the cutoff. Although five of the participants refused to complete the SDQ, there were 202 participants (15.43%) whose scores were above the cutoff. In the second phase of the study, we aimed to obtain a total of 272 participants whose test scores were above the cut-off scores for the DES and SDQ but we could have reached by phone number 190 of them (190 in 272 participants, 69.8%). The most prevalent dissociative disorder group was DD-NOS (62.8%).
Conclusion: The high prevalence of DD-NOS was consistent with other studies’ result. This high prevalence was pointed out in DSM 5 discussion; thus in DSM 5 criteria authors aimed to reduce this high proportion. In DSM 5, patients with possession were categorized in the subgroup of dissociative identity disorder group.