Objective indicators of posttraumatic dissociation
Final Report Abstract
Dissociation is a psychological phenomenon defined in the diagnostic manual DSM-5 as a disruption and/or discontinuity of the normal, subjective integration of behavior, identity, consciousness, emotion, perception, body representation, and motor control. Dissociations can occur pathologically within the context of a mental disorder. Recurring dissociative episodes, even long after the traumatic event, are a known phenomenon in patients with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This affects approximately one-third of all PTSD patients, who typically exhibit more severe symptomatology. They report experiences of depersonalization (feeling that their own body does not belong to them or having out-of-body experiences) and derealization (feeling that the environment is unreal). However, such negative symptomatology attenuates the sensory and emotional self-experience, making it difficult to report on the symptoms and thus hindering the assessment of, for example, neurobiological processes associated with them. This impedes crucial insights in both basic research on dissociative experiences and in the clinical application for diagnostics and therapy. Existing theoretical models, which consider endocrine, neurobiological, and physiological implications, have not been sufficiently confirmed by empirical evidence. The aim of this project is to identify objectifiable markers in order to provide a physiologically measurable bridge to subjective human experience and to take into account parameters close to the body in diagnostics and therapy, such as diagnostics through mobile monitoring of health data or the application of biofeedback training for dissociative experiences, could also advance clinical work with dissociative symptoms. A study in PTSD patients undergoing a symptom provocation paradigm showed that re-experiencing traumatic stress is associated with increased body swaying and reduced pain sensitivity, whereby pain sensitivity under symptom provocation was less pronounced in patients of the dissociative subtype. Other objectifiable markers of dissociation could not be demonstrated, and in particular no changes in cardiovascular parameters were found in dissociation in further studies conducted as part of this project.
Publications
-
A New Method for a Shorter and Valid Assessment of Olfactory Threshold in Repeated Measurement Designs Based on the Sniffin’ Sticks Test. Chemosensory Perception, 15(1), 26-34.
Beutler, Sarah; Ladner, Liliana R.; Hummel, Thomas & Croy, Ilona
-
Trauma-related dissociation and the autonomic nervous system: a systematic literature review of psychophysiological correlates of dissociative experiencing in PTSD patients. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 13(2).
Beutler, Sarah; Mertens, Yoki L.; Ladner, Liliana; Schellong, Julia; Croy, Ilona & Daniels, Judith K.
-
Psychophysiological reactions during the trauma-film paradigm and their predictive value for intrusions. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 14(2).
Beutler, Sarah & Croy, Ilona
