An archetype of the collaborative efforts of psychotherapy and psychopharmacology in successfully treating dissociative identity disorder with comorbid bipolar disorder.
We present a case where dissociative identity disorder was effectively treated with memory retrieval psychotherapy. However, the patient's comorbid bipolar disorder contributed to the patient's instability and fortified the amnesiac barriers that exist between alter personality states in dissociative identity disorder, which made memory retrieval difficult to achieve. Implications from this case indicate that a close collaboration between psychologist and psychiatrist focused on carefully diagnosing and treating existing comorbid conditions may be the most important aspect in treating dissociative identity disorder. We present our experience of successfully treating a patient with dissociative identity disorder and bipolar disorder using this collaborative method.
Lakshmanan
Manu N
MN
Mr. Lakshmanan is from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Meier
Stacey L Colton
SL
Meier
Robert S
RS
Lakshmanan
Ramaswamy
R
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2003 Nov;60(11):1079-88
14609883
Psychiatry. 1996 Fall;59(3):255-66
8912944
Am J Psychiatry. 1997 Dec;154(12):1703-10
9396949
Psychiatry (Edgmont). 2009 Mar;6(3):24-9
19724751
Am J Psychiatry. 1997 Jun;154(6):832-9
9167512
Br J Psychiatry. 1988 Nov;153:597-606
3076495
J Nerv Ment Dis. 1988 Sep;176(9):519-27
3418321
Child Abuse Negl. 1993 Sep-Oct;17(5):677-86
8221221
Am Fam Physician. 2000 Apr 1;61(7):2121-8
10779253
Am J Psychiatry. 2000 Nov;157(11):1873-5
11058490
Am J Psychiatry. 2007 Sep;164(9):1348-55
17728419
J Trauma Dissociation. 2009;10(1):102-12
19197715
Am J Psychother. 1999 Summer;53(3):289-319
10586296
Psychoanal Q. 2009 Jan;78(1):57-105
19334646