Am J Psychiatry 1993; 150:1011-1014
Copyright © 1993 by American Psychiatric Association
Use of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders for systematic assessment of dissociative symptoms in posttraumatic stress disorder
JD Bremner, M Steinberg, SM Southwick, DR Johnson and DS Charney
National Center for PostTraumatic Stress Disorder, Division of Clinical Neurosciences, West Haven VA Medical Center, CT 06516.
OBJECTIVE: This study compared dissociative symptom areas in Vietnam combat
veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and in Vietnam combat
veterans without PTSD. METHOD: The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV
Dissociative Disorders (SCID-D) was used to compare dissociative symptoms
in 40 Vietnam combat veterans with PTSD and 15 Vietnam combat veterans
without PTSD. The SCID-D yields a total score and scores in five symptom
areas: amnesia, depersonalization, derealization, identity confusion, and
identity alteration. RESULTS: The PTSD patients had more severe
dissociative symptoms in each of the five symptom areas of the SCID-D and
higher total symptom scores. Amnesia was the symptom area with the greatest
difference in scores between the PTSD patients (mean = 3.68, SD = 0.73) and
the non-PTSD veterans (mean = 1.06, SD = 0.26). CONCLUSIONS: The finding of
higher levels of dissociative symptoms in Vietnam combat veterans with PTSD
than in Vietnam veterans without PTSD is consistent with a level of
dissociative symptoms in PTSD similar to that in dissociative disorders.
