Frequency of dissociative disorders among psychiatric outpatients in Turkey

The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of dissociative disord ers among psychiatric outpatients in Turkey. One hundred fifty consecutive outpatients admitted to the psychiatry clinic of a university hospital were screened with the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), Twenty-three patie nts (15.3%) with a DES score greater than 30 and a comparison group selecte d from the same outpatient population who scored less than 10 on the scale were then interviewed with the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule (D DIS) in a blind fashion. According to the DDIS, 18 patients (12.0%) receive d a diagnosis of dissociative disorder; 83.3% (n = 15) of the dissociative patients reported neglect, 72.2% (n = 13) emotional abuse, 50.0% (n = 9) ph ysical abuse, and 27.8% (n = 5) sexual abuse during childhood, Dissociative disorders are not rare among psychiatric outpatients, Self-rating instrume nts and structured interviews can be used successfully for screening dissoc iative disorders, which are usually underrecognized, Neglect was the most f requently reported type of childhood trauma, suggesting the importance of o ther childhood experiences in addition to sexual and/or physical abuse in t he development of dissociative psychopathology. Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.