Differentiating multiple personality disorder and complex partial seizures.
A number of reports have suggested that some cases of multiple personality disorder might be due to temporal lobe epileptic discharges. We have administered a structured interview, the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule, to 20 subjects with multiple personality disorder, 20 with complex partial seizures, and 28 neurologic controls. Subjects also completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale. Results show that multiple personality can be differentiated from complex partial seizures on a large number of items. The seizure patients did not differ from controls. The data indicate that the phenomenologies of these two disorders are distinct, and, therefore, there is little reason to assume a common etiology.
Ross
C A
CA
Department of Psychiatry, St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Heber
S
S
Anderson
G
G
Norton
G R
GR
Anderson
B A
BA
del Campo
M
M
Pillay
N
N
D000328:Adult; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D009105:Dissociative Identity Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics