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Dissociative Identity Disorder: diagnosis and treatment in the Netherlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

H.N. Sno  and
H.F.A. Schalken
H.N. Sno
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, De Heel General Hospital, PO Box 210, 1500 Ee Zaandam, the Netherlands
H.F.A. Schalken
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Summary

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a controversial diagnosis and empirical data on the efficacy of treatment modalities are scanty. The objective of this study was to explore the frequency of the diagnosis, the types and efficacy of prevailing treatment practices, and to examine demographic data on patients in the Netherlands.

A questionnaire, including questions on one selected DID patient, was mailed to 1,452 Dutch psychiatrists. The response rate was 46.7%. A total of 273 psychiatrists reported having made the diagnosis at least once. The diagnosis was made in a statistically significant manner more frequently by female psychiatrists, by psychiatrists aged 50 years or younger, and by those certified after 1982. No correlation was observed with primary theoretical orientation or the type or topography of work facility.

The mean age of the selected patients was 33.2 and the male:female (M:F) ratio 1:9. The majority of patients were seen once a week in an outpatient setting. Individual psychotherapy and adjunctive anxiolytic or antidepressant medications were the most widely endorsed treatment modalities. Hypnosis was rarely used.

We conclude that the diagnosis of DID is not to be dismissed as a local eccentricity. It is warranted as an explanatory framework in the context of a psychotherapeutic treatment.

Keywords

dissociationdissociative identity disorderDutch psychiatristsmultiple personality disordersurvey
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 14 , Issue 5 , September 1999 , pp. 270 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS.

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