Skip to content

Trauma-Related Altered States of Consciousness: Exploring the 4-D Model

Paul Frewen, Ruth A. Lanius

Journal of Trauma & Dissociation March 20, 2014 DOI: 10.1080/15299732.2013.873377 (opens in new tab)

Relevant Not relevant

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Observational study Peer reviewed
Sample size 578
Population Women with PTSD due to childhood trauma and undergraduates
Topics Altered states of consciousness
Keywords Consciousness Distress Dissociative disorders Posttraumatic stress Etiology Clinical psychology Psychological trauma Developmental psychology
Citations 59
Key findings The 4-D model's predictions that dissociative altered states of consciousness are less frequent, less intercorrelated, and more common in highly dissociative individuals were supported, but childhood trauma severity was not strongly associated with such states.

Abstract

Frewen and Lanius (in press) recently articulated a 4-D model as a framework for classifying symptoms of posttraumatic stress into those that potentially occur within normal waking consciousness (NWC) versus those that intrinsically represent dissociative experiences of trauma-related altered states of consciousness (TRASC). Four dimensions were specified: time-memory, thought, body, and emotion. The 4-D model further hypothesizes that in traumatized persons, symptoms of TRASC, compared with NWC forms of distress, will be (a) observed less frequently; (b) less intercorrelated, especially as measured as moment-to-moment states; (c) observed more frequently in people with high dissociative symptomatology as measured independently; and (d) observed more often in people who have experienced repeated traumatization, particularly early developmental trauma. The aim of the present research was to begin to evaluate these 4 predictions of the 4-D model. Within a sample of 74 women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) primarily due to histories of childhood trauma, as well as within a 2nd sample of 504 undergraduates (384 females), the 1st 2 hypotheses of the 4-D model were supported. In addition, within the PTSD sample, the 3rd hypothesis was supported. However, inconsistent with the 4th hypothesis, severity of childhood trauma history was not strongly associated with TRASC. We conclude that the hypotheses articulated by the 4-D model were generally supported, although further research in different trauma-related disorders is needed, and the role of childhood trauma history in the etiology of TRASC requires further research.

Comparable studies

Other observational and cohort studies on altered states of consciousness, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG. 6 female, 7 male human participants 2019 Observational cohort n = 13
Measures of entropy and complexity in altered states of consciousness Subjects during resting wakefulness, different sleep stages, and epileptic seizures 2017 Observational study
Altered States of Consciousness and Short-Term Psychological After-Effects Induced by the First Time Ritual Use of Ayahuasca in an Urban Context in Brazil First-time ayahuasca users in Santo Daime and União do Vegetal rituals 2005 Observational cohort n = 28
Quantifying arousal and awareness in altered states of consciousness using interpretable deep learning Healthy individuals during sleep, individuals under general anesthesia, and patients... 2022 Observational cohort n = 71
Subanaesthetic ketamine and altered states of consciousness in humans Human volunteers 2018 Observational study n = 15

Citations in the library

Cited by 16

and 11 more in the library

Cites 5

Related reading

Explore topics

Altered states of consciousness PTSD