The Relationship Between Peritraumatic Distress and Peritraumatic Dissociation: An Examination of Two Competing Models
Abstract
This study examined whether peritraumatic dissociation serves to protect trauma-exposed individuals from experiencing high levels of peritraumatic distress or is an epiphenomenon of high levels of peritraumatic distress. The sample was comprised of 709 police officers and 317 peer-nominated civilians exposed to a variety of critical incidents. Participants filled out measures of trauma exposure, traumatic stress, peritraumatic distress, and peritraumatic dissociation. There was an overall moderate-to-strong linear relationship between peritraumatic distress and dissociation. Among those with high levels of dissociation, very few reported low levels of distress. Among those with high levels of distress, a significant number--but not all--reported high levels of dissociation. Our results do not provide support for the idea that dissociation protects individuals from experiencing high levels of distress at the time of the trauma but rather suggest that dissociation is an epiphenomenon of high levels of distress observed in a subset of individuals.
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Support for the hypothesis that dissociation during trauma reduces distress and physiological arousal is inconsistent.
“although support for this hypothesis is inconsistent (Bryant, Harvey, Guthrie, & Moulds, 2000; Fikretoglu et al., 2006; Griffin, Resick, & Mechanic, 1997; Kaufman et al., 2002; Nixon & Bryant, 2005).”
From Dissociation and memory fragmentation in post-traumatic stress disorder: An evaluation of the dissociative encoding hypothesis (2012) · cites this paper as Fikretoglu et al., 2006
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“, Horowitz, 1986) and may reduce distress and physiological arousal, although support for this hypothesis is inconsistent (Bryant, Harvey, Guthrie, & Moulds, 2000; Fikretoglu et al., 2006; Griffin, Resick, & Mechanic, 1997; Kaufman et al., 2002; Nixon & Bryant, 2005).”
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The structure of peritraumatic dissociation: A cross validation in clinical and nonclinical samples
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- Authors
- Fikretoglu, D., Brunet, A., Best, S., Metzler, T., Delucchi, K., Weiss, D. S., Fagan, J., & Marmar, C.
- Affiliations
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute (CA)
- San Francisco VA Medical Center (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fikretoglu, Deniz
- Brunet, Alain
- Venue
- Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease
- Published
- 2006-11
- Volume
- 194
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 853-858
- ISSN
- 0022-3018 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2075864685
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 1.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH-56350, R01MH056350)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Keywords
- peritraumatic distress, peritraumatic dissociation, traumatic stress, trauma exposure, critical incidents, police officers, civilian population, epiphenomenon
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Defense Mechanisms, Diagnosis, Differential, Dissociative Disorders, Female, Humans, Life Change Events, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Stress, Psychological, Police, Law Enforcement, Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Acute
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