Abstract:
Early detection of dissociative symptoms is essential for effective initiation of appropriate treatment. The author reviews a new diagnostic tool, the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders (SCID-D) (Steinberg, 1993), which comprehensively evaluates the severity of five posttraumatic dissociative symptoms (amnesia, depersonalization, derealization, identity confusion, identity alteration) and the dissociative disorders. Several investigations have reported good-to-excellent reliability and validity of the SCID-D. This article describes the clinical assessment of dissociative symptoms, as well as the diagnosis of dissociative disorders using the SCID-D, based upon research at Yale University involving over 400 interviews over a 10-year time period. It is recommended that screening for dissociative disorders, as described in the SCID-D and the Interviewer's Guide to the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders (SCID-D) (Steinberg, 1993), be included in the diagnostic evaluation of patients with either dissociative symptoms or with suspected/documented histories of trauma.