Clinical Practice Guidelines for Assessment and Management of Dissociative Disorders Presenting as Psychiatric Emergencies
Jahnavis Kedare, Sachin Pradeep Baliga, Adnanm Kadiani
Indian Journal of Psychiatry January 29, 2023 DOI: 10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_493_22 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Commentary Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Dissociative disorders Dissociative identity disorder Psychological intervention |
| Citations | 6 |
| Key points | The authors contend that dissociative disorders are frequently encountered in emergency and casualty settings in India, most commonly as dissociative convulsions, motor symptoms, and possession states, while dissociative identity disorder is rare there. They argue that emergency management is complicated by the need to rule out differential diagnoses and by constraints of privacy, space, and assessment time, which contribute to misdiagnosis risk. |
Abstract
Dissociative disorders are quite often present in emergency/casualty. Commonly seen presentations in India include dissociative convulsions, motor symptoms, possession states, at times dissociative amnesia, and dissociative fugue. Dissociative identity disorder is a very rare occurrence in the emergency setting. It is challenging to examine a patient with a dissociative disorder in the emergency setting, consider differential diagnoses, rule them out, and manage the acute symptoms. Lack of privacy and space, time available for assessment, and risk of misdiagnoses are some of the drawbacks of managing dissociative disorders in casualty.