Temporal Dynamics of Affective, Physiological, and Dissociative States: A Transdiagnostic Approach
Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Final Report Abstract
Dissociation is a common experience that can have serious effects on mental health. Sometimes, dissociative experiences become unhelpful and disruptive, leading to significant problems for both individuals and the healthcare system. These experiences can happen in many mental health conditions, but are especially common in dissociative disorders, (complex) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and borderline personality disorder. Some experts believe that dissociation might help people cope with overwhelming emotions by reducing distress and calming the body. To find out if this is true, we studied 88 people who often experienced dissociation and had diagnoses of dissociative disorders, borderline personality disorder, or PTSD. We asked them several times a day about their feelings and dissociative experiences, and we also measured their heart rate for a week in their daily lives. In the lab, we collected additional data on their stress responses, including skin conductance (sweat response), blood pressure, and stress hormone levels during a stressful task. Our results showed that when people felt more dissociated, they also tended to feel more negative emotions, both in daily life and in the lab. However, we did not find that dissociation actually helped reduce these negative feelings, nor did it consistently change the body’s stress responses. In other words, dissociation did not seem to help people feel better or show a clear pattern in their physical reactions. These findings suggest that, rather than helping people manage their emotions, frequent dissociation may actually be unhelpful and could make emotional problems worse.
Link to the final report
https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/50231
Publications
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Inducing Psychosocial Stress in the Laboratory: A Study Protocol for the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) v2. ZappyLab, Inc..
Bodo Heekerens, Johannes
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The temporal dynamics of dissociation: protocol for an ecological momentary assessment and laboratory study in a transdiagnostic sample. BMC Psychology, 11(1).
Heekerens, Johannes B.; Gross, James J.; Kreibig, Sylvia D.; Wingenfeld, Katja & Roepke, Stefan
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Does Dissociation Have an Emotion Regulation Function? Evidence from Daily Life and the Laboratory. Center for Open Science.
Heekerens, Johannes Bodo; Gross, James; Kreibig, Sylvia D.; Ober, Hannah; Eichentopf, Randy; Dittrich, Theresa; Lebovitz, Julia; Hellmann-Regen, Julian; Wingenfeld, Katja & Röpke, Stefan
