Dissociative disorders are relatively rare, but dissociative experiences are rather common in everyday life. Dissociative tendencies appear to be modestly related to other dimmensions of personality, such as hypnotizaability, absorption, fantasy
proness, and some facets of openness to experiences.
These dispositional variables may constitute diatheses, or risk factors, dissociative psychpathology.
In attempting to understand the genesis of dissociative disorders, investigators have converged on traumatic events as importent antecedents of dissociative symptomatology.
Dissociative mechanisms have also been implicated in a variety of psychiatric disorders, and almost all the patients with dissociative disorders have cormorbid psychiatric disorders.
A high proportion of psychiatric inpatients have significant dissociative pathology and these symptoms are underrecognized by clinicians.
So the proper diagnosis of these patients has important implication for their clinical course.
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