Dr. Roxanne Dryden-Edwards is an adult, child, and adolescent psychiatrist. She is a former Chair of the Committee on Developmental Disabilities for the American Psychiatric Association, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and Medical Director of the National Center for Children and Families in Bethesda, Maryland.
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.
What happens if dissociative identity disorder is not treated?
As with other mental-health conditions, the prognosis for people with DID
becomes much less optimistic if not appropriately treated. Individuals with a
history of being sexually abused, including those who go on to develop
dissociative identity disorder, are vulnerable to abusing alcohol or other substances as a negative
way of coping with their victimization. People with DID are also at risk for
attempting suicide more than once. Violent behavior has a high level of association with dissociation
as well. Other debilitating outcomes of DID, like that of
other severe chronic mental illnesses, include inability to obtain and maintain
employment, poor relationships with others, and therefore overall lower
productivity and quality of life.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) At A Glance
Dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly called multiple personality
disorder, is an illness that is characterized by the presence of at least two
clear personality states, called alters, which may have different reactions, emotions, and body
functioning.
How often DID occurs remains difficult to know due to disagreement among
professionals about the existence of the diagnosis itself, its symptoms, and how to best assess
the illness.
DID is diagnosed nine times more often in females than in males.
A history of severe abuse is thought to be associated with DID.
DID has been portrayed in the media in productions like The Three Faces of
Eve and Sybil.
Signs and symptoms of DID include memory lapses, blackouts, being often accused of lying, finding apparently strange items among one's possessions, having apparent strangers recognize them as someone else, feeling unreal, and feeling like more than one person.
As there is no specific diagnostic test for DID, mental-health professionals
perform a mental-health interview, ruling out other mental disorders, and
referring the client for medical evaluation to rule out a physical cause for
symptoms.
Individuals with DID often also suffer from other mental illnesses, including
posttraumatic stress disorder, borderline and other personality disorders, and
conversion disorder.
People who may benefit either emotionally or legally from having DID
sometimes pretend to have it, as with those who molest children, have antisocial personality disorder, or in cases of
Munchausen's syndrome.
Some researchers are of the opinion that sex offenders who truly suffer from
DID are best identified using a structured interview.
Psychotherapy is the mainstay of treatment of DID and usually involves helping
individuals with DID improve their relationship with others, preventing crises, and to experience
feelings they are not comfortable with having.
Hypnosis is sometimes used to help people with DID learn more about their
personality states in the hope of their gaining better control of those states.
Although medications can be helpful in managing emotional symptoms that
sometimes occur with DID, caution is exercised when it is prescribed in order to
avoid making the individual feel retraumatized by feeling controlled.
People with DID may have trouble keeping a job and maintaining relationships
and are at risk for engaging in drug and alcohol abuse as well as hurting
themselves and others.
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Anxiety is a feeling of apprehension and fear characterized by physical symptoms. Anxiety disorders are serious medical illnesses that affect approximately 19 million American adults.
Stress occurs when forces from the outside world impinge on the individual. Stress is a normal part of life. However, over-stress, can be harmful. There is now speculation, as well as some evidence, that points to the abnormal stress responses as being involved in causing various diseases or conditions.
Depression is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts and affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. The principal types of depression are major depression, dysthymia, and bipolar disease (also called manic-depressive disease).
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric condition, can develop after any catastrophic life event. Symptoms include nightmares, flashbacks, sweating, rapid heart rate, detachment, amnesia, sleep problems, irritability, and exaggerated startle response. Treatment may involve psychotherapy, group support, and medication.
Schizophrenia is a disabling brain disorder that may cause hallucinations and delusions and affect a person's ability to communicate and pay attention. Symptoms of psychosis appear in men in their late teens and early 20s and in women in their mid-20s to early 30s. With treatment involving the use of antipsychotic medications and psychosocial treatment, schizophrenia patients can lead rewarding and meaningful lives.
Suicide is the process of intentionally ending one's own life. Approximately 1 million people worldwide commit suicide each year, and 10 million to 20 million attempt suicide annually.
Child abuse falls into four categories: neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. There are certain risk factors that predispose a child to being abused and an adult to abusing a child. Risk factors for children are age, children with learning disabilities, adopted and foster children, children with congenital abnormalities, and a past history of abuse. Parental risk factors include young or single parents, those who suffered abuse themselves, adults with substance-abuse problems or psychiatric disease, and those who didn't graduate from high school.
Childhood depression can interfere with social activities, interests, schoolwork and family life. Symptoms and signs include anger, social withdrawal, vocal outbursts, fatigue, physical complaints, and thoughts of suicide. Treatment may involve psychotherapy and medication.
Sleepwalking is a condition in which an individual walks or does other activities while asleep. Factors associated with sleepwalking include genetic, environmental, and physiological. Episodes of sleepwalking may include quiet walking to agitated running. Conditions that may have similar symptoms of sleepwalking, but are not include night terrors, confusional arousals, and nocturnal seizures. Treatment of sleepwalking generally include preventative measures. Medication may be prescribed if necessary.
Mental illness is any disease or condition affecting the brain that influence the way a person thinks, feels, behaves, and/or relates to others. Mental illness is caused by heredity, biology, psychological trauma and environmental stressors.
About 5 million children and adolescents in the U.S. suffer from a serious mental illness such as eating disorders, anxiety disorders, disruptive behavior disorders, pervasive development disorders, elimination disorders, learning disorders, schizophrenia, tic disorders, and mood disorders. Symptoms of mental illness include frequent outbursts of anger, hyperactivity, fear of gaining weight, excessive worrying, frequent temper tantrums, and hearing voices that aren't there. Treatment may involve medication, psychotherapy, and creative therapies.
Children's health is focused on the well-being of children from conception through adolescence. There are many aspects of children's health, including growth and development, illnesses, injuries, behavior, mental illness, family health and community health.
Depression in the elderly is very common. That doesn't mean, though, it's normal. Treatment may involve antidepressants, psychotherapy, or electroconvulsive therapy.
There are many forms of sexual assault, including rape, attempted rape, child molestation, sexual intercourse that you say no to, inappropriate touching, and vaginal, anal, or oral penetration. Sexual assault can also be anything that forces someone to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention, such as voyeurism, exhibitionism, incest, and sexual harassment.
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