Dissociative Phenomenology and General Health in Normal Population

Abstract

Background: Dissociative symptoms are most commonly found in females and adolescents, and when dis-cussing their background, they can be from lower socio-economic backgrounds and rural areas. They are al-ways preceded by psychosocial stressors. Dissociative disorders previously known as “hysteria” have been described since antiquity and Hippocrates even hypothesised “wandering uterus” to be the cause for dissocia-tion in females. With the advances in science, there has been shift from these religious and spiritual concepts to a scientific basis for dissociation.

Aim: To assess the dissociative phenomenology in normal population and to assess the subjective health in normal population.

Methods: A group of 100 (50 females & 50 males) were selected from the community using a snowball sam-pling technique.

Tools: Socio-demographic data sheet, General Health Questionnaire-12 and Dissociative Experience Scale-II were used.

Results: The study found that females differ from males in the reporting of subjective health rating (X2=5.76, p=0.01) and similar results shown in terms of dissociative phenomenology (X2=67.76, p=0.001).

Discussion: It has been found that only 4% from the female group and 2% from the male group rated their health under the “normal” category. 52% of females and 64% of males were categorised under “mild ill health” and 24% to 26% were in “moderate ill health”, whereas 20% of female participants and 8% of male participants rated their health as “severely ill”. In another domain of the study, dissociative phenomenology, 32% of female participants reported severe dissociative symptoms and 38% of male participants also showed similar results.

Conclusion: Dissociative disorder significantly affects the population but it is hard to diagnose due to factors such as; cultural factors, socio-economic factors etc. The study shows clearly that dissociative symptoms are found in the general population also.