(Taylor & Francis Group, 2020-05-13) Fung, Hong Wang; Chan, Chitat; Ross, Colin A.; Choi, Tat Ming
Depression is a common and challenging comorbid condition
in people with pathological dissociation. To our knowledge,
this preliminary study is the first study that has looked at the
clinical correlates of depression in a sample of people with
pathological dissociation (N = 72). We found that severe
depression is common in this sample and that depression is
associated with dissociative symptoms, post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) symptoms, borderline personality disorder
symptoms and clinical recovery; the level of depression is
also associated with both childhood and adulthood betrayal
trauma but not with childhood and adulthood trauma with
less betrayal. PTSD symptoms are the most significant correlates
of the level of depression in this sample. Some clinical
implications are discussed. Our initial findings imply that it may
be important to manage depression by preventing adulthood
betrayal trauma and stabilizing PTSD and dissociative symptoms
when working with service users with pathological dissociation.
Further studies are needed.
