Dissociative Symptoms and Trauma Exposure: Specificity, Affect Dysregulation, and Posttraumatic Stress
Abstract
Although dissociation is often described as a posttraumatic response, the actual statistical association between trauma exposure and dissociative symptoms is surprisingly small. This suggests that that some dissociative phenomena may be unrelated to trauma, or may be related in more complex ways. Analysis of the normative data for the Multiscale Dissociation Inventory revealed significant dissociative symptoms in only 8% of trauma-exposed individuals from the general population. However, 90% of those with at least one clinically significant dissociation scale on the Multiscale Dissociation Inventory reported a trauma history, and significant dissociation was found in only 2% of nontraumatized individuals. A history of interpersonal violence, number of different types of trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress, and affect dysregulation were univariate predictors of dissociative symptomatology in trauma-exposed participants, but only posttraumatic stress and affect dysregulation were multivariate predictors. Trauma is probably an important, but insufficient, condition for the development of dissociative symptomatology. Additional risk factors, such as high posttraumatic stress and/or reduced affect regulation capacities, may determine whether trauma exposure results in clinically significant dissociation.
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Although dissociation is commonly reported in trauma survivors, it is not necessary for the development of PTSD.
“Investigations of specificity and sensitivity find that, although dissociation is commonly reported in survivors of trauma, it is not necessary for the development of PTSD (Briere, 2006; Holen, 1993; Marshall & Schell, 2002).”
From Dissociation and memory fragmentation in post-traumatic stress disorder: An evaluation of the dissociative encoding hypothesis (2012) · cites this paper as Briere, 2006
A parsimonious explanation may be that both dissociation and fragmentation are better accounted for by a third factor such as arousal, time since trauma, disclosure, cognitive ability, or data-driven processing.
“A parsimonious explanation might be that both are better accounted for by a third factor, such as arousal, time since trauma, disclosure, cognitive ability, or data driven processing (Briere, 2006; Bryant, 2007; Ehlers & Clark, 2000; Zoellner & Bittinger, 2004).”
From Dissociation and memory fragmentation in post-traumatic stress disorder: An evaluation of the dissociative encoding hypothesis (2012) · cites this paper as Briere, 2006
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“For example, van Ijzendoorn and Schuengel (1996) report that, across 26 studies, the average variance in Dissociative Experience Scale (Bernstein and Putnam, 1986) scores accounted for by participants’ sexual or physical abuse history was 6%.”
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Dalenberg, C. J., Brand, B. L., Gleaves, D. H., Dorahy, M. J., Loewenstein, R. J., Cardeña, E., Frewen, P. A., Carlson, E. B., & Spiegel, D. (2012) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0027447 · Cited by 667 · see citing works
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“A parsimonious explanation might be that both are better accounted for by a third factor, such as arousal, time since trauma, disclosure, cognitive ability, or data driven processing (Briere, 2006; Bryant, 2007; Ehlers & Clark, 2000; Zoellner & Bittinger, 2004).”
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- Authors
- Briere, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Southern California (US)
- Corresponding author
- Briere, John
- ORCID
- Briere, John
- Venue
- Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease
- Published
- 2006-02
- Volume
- 194
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 78-82
- ISSN
- 0022-3018 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1980859798
- Cited by
- 175
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 4.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Keywords
- dissociative symptoms, trauma exposure, post-traumatic stress, affect dysregulation, interpersonal violence
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Affective Symptoms, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Dissociative Disorders, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Life Change Events, Male, Middle Aged, Personality Inventory, Risk Factors, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Violence, Comorbidity, Multivariate Analysis
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