Dissociative symptom disorders in advanced nursing practice: background, treatment, and instrumentation to assess symptoms.

Less well-known among the psychiatric disorders, dissociation is one of the most common underlying symptoms of individuals seeking mental health care (Maldonado, 2001). Closely associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociation characteristics may include inconsistent consciousness, autobiographical forgetfulness, difficulties in self-regulation, regressions, alternate identities, disorganization in the development of a cohesive sense of self, depersonalization, and derealization (Trickett, Noll, Reiffman & Putnam, 2001). The major constructs and dimensions of the dissociative symptom disorders in adults are introduced. Several of the most prominent psychometric instruments that nurses and other mental health clinicians may use as adjuncts to diagnosis and treatment are described.