Dissociation : Vol. 7, No. 1, p. 063-076 : Treatment trajectories in multiple personality disorder
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Date
1994-03
Authors
Kluft, Richard P., 1943-
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Dissociation
Abstract
Despite rapid recent advances in the study of multiple personality disorder(MPD), many basic concerns remain unexplored or incompletely understood. One of these regards expectations about progress in treatment. The literature contains little that allows the clinician to estimate how a particular patient's response to therapy compares to that of other patients. Without such baselines confusion, exasperation, or complacency with respect to progress cannot be monitored
and, if necessary, corrected, in a reasonable manner. In order to study treatment progress 31 MPD patients in ongoing treatment with the author as of July 31, 1990, were monitored along 12 dimensions through August 1, 1991. The progress of the 10 MPD patients most recently taken into treatment by the author and seen for at least three months was monitored as well. The results suggest that although steady stepwise improvement is quite unusual, many patients show indices of improvement on a year-by-year basis. MPD patients can be distributed into several subgroups by virtue of the trajectories of their treatment, and that reasonable expectations for progress vary widely according to the trajectory subgroup to which a given patient proves to belong.
Description
p. 063-076.