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Abstract
Considering that epidemiological research on dissociative disorders has suggested a 9 to 1 predominance of female cases, this study investigated the relationship between gender and dissociation using a dimensional approach. A total of 2,153 participants from different diagnostic groups completed the Dissociative Experience Scale. In order to control for the confounding effect of current psychopathology a subgroup 790 subjects additionally completed the SCL-90. We did not find any differences in the general or pathological dissociation scores. Hypothetical gender differences in dissociative psychopathology were not a function of diagnostic categories. There were no significant sex differences in the distribution of high dissociators. Our findings suggest that men and women do not generally differ in dissociative psychopathology. The implications for future investigations on the epidemiology, etiology, and psychobiology of dissociative symptoms are discussed.
Key Words
Dissociation [middot] Dissociative Experience Scale [middot] Epidemiology [middot] Hysteria [middot] Traumatic memories
Copyright (C) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel
Dissociation defined as a 'disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception of the environment' [1], represents a semantically open term referring to disparate phenomena, e.g. amnesia of personally relevant information, identity disturbances or depersonalization [2, 3]. Correspondingly, the dissociative disorders (DD) are not a homogeneous category including the dissociative identity disorder (DID), which is the most severe form of dissociative psychopathology [4, 5]. This heterogeneity is also reflected by a divergent classification of the DD in North America and Europe [6]. For example, while the depersonalization disorder is considered as dissociative in nature in DSM-IV, the ICD-10 does not classify it as a DD, but as 'other neurotic disorder'. This lack of unity with respect to the clinical phenomenology and classification of dissociation and the DD respectively is paralleled by differences in theoretical approaches and clinical practice between North America and Europe [7, 8].
Independent of the current conceptions and clinical approaches to dissociation, it is historically closely linked with conversion and hysteria [9, 10]. This association has led to the widespread clinical belief that dissociative phenomena and disorders predominantly occur in women. This notion seems to be confirmed by epidemiological research indicating that the large majority of individuals with DD, particularly with DID, are women [5, 11]. In clinical populations female DID cases made up...