Unpacking the depersonalization syndrome: an exploratory factor analysis on the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale.
BACKGROUND
Depersonalization has long been considered a syndrome but there is poor agreement on its constituent symptoms.


METHODS
In order to establish whether different symptoms of depersonalization represent the expression of a single or several underlying dimensions, an exploratory factor analysis on the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale (CDS) was carried out on 138 consecutive patients diagnosed with depersonalization disorder.


RESULTS
Four well determined factors accounting for 73.3% of the variance were extracted. These were labelled 'Anomalous Body Experience'; 'Emotional Numbing'; 'Anomalous Subjective Recall' and 'Alienation from Surroundings'.


CONCLUSIONS
Symptoms of depersonalization belong to distinct but related psychopathological domains.
Sierra
Mauricio
M
Depersonalization Research Unit, Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Denmark Hill, London. M.Sierra-Siegert@iop.kcl.ac.uk
Baker
Dawn
D
Medford
Nicholas
N
David
Anthony S
AS
D000328:Adult; D003861:Depersonalization / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013577:Syndrome