A 32-year-old woman with mental retardation and dissociative trance disorder killed her five children while in a trance state. The case suggests that psychosocial stressors, trauma, underlying psychiatric conditions, culture, and communication influence trance conditions. Comorbidity between mental retardation and dissociative trance disorder is rarely reported. Further research is needed to understand these disorders and their comorbidity.
A 28-year-old woman developed possession trance disorder after attending a salai jin ritual in Tidore, experiencing recurrent possession episodes that alternated with normal functioning over two weeks. The patient also faced a psychosocial stressor: her boyfriend left her to marry another woman. The authors propose that the disorder's etiology may involve this psychosocial stressor combined with acculturation problems. The case is discussed in the context of ICD-11 criteria for possession trance disorder, defined as an alteration of consciousness and identity replaced by an external possessing agent that controls the individual's actions.