Discriminating among diagnostic categories using the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule.

The Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule was administered to 1,308 subjects in eight diagnostic categories, including 296 with dissociative identity disorder. The study tested three hypotheses: (1) the Mahalanobis distance between dissociative identity disorder and each of seven other diagnostic categories would be large, (2) the closest diagnostic category to dissociative identity disorder would be dissociative disorder not otherwise specified, and (3) nondissociative diagnostic categories would be closer to each other than any one to dissociative identity disorder. All three hypotheses were confirmed by these data. The findings support the conclusion that dissociative identity disorder is a discrete category or taxon.