Israeli Mental Health Professionals' Attitudes Towards Dissociative Disorders, Reported Incidence and Alternative Diagnoses Considered

Abstract

Clinical diagnoses of dissociative disorders (DDs), including Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), are controversial because there are mental health professionals in North America and elsewhere who are skeptical about whether these psychiatric disorders actually exist. This paper explores the attitudes of mental health professionals in Israel toward DDs and DID through a survey of 211 practicing clinicians (return rate of 39.5%). Of the sample, 95.5% scored at or above the point on a 5-point Likert scale measuring belief in the validity of DDs (m = 4.17, SD = 0.78); 84.5% declared at least a moderate belief in the validity of DID (M = 3.5, S.D. = 0.97). The average Israeli clinician surveyed had made 4.8 career-long DD diagnoses (S.D. = 18.06) and carried an average of 1.05 DD patients in his/her caseload (S.D. = 2.86). DID had a career-long diagnosis frequency of 0.14 patients per clinician (S.D. = 0.59) and was currently seen at a frequency of 0.03 cases per clinician (S.D. = 0.20). The five most frequently considered alternative diagnoses to DID in Israel were Borderline Personality Disorder (24%), Psychotic Disorder/Schizophrenia (23%), PTSD/Anxiety Disorder (10%), Malingering (8%) and Depressive Disorder (7%). The findings suggest that attitudes of Israeli clinicians are similar to those of North American clinicians despite the geographical and cultural differences between them.

Key Words:

• Dissociative disorders
• dissociation
• dissociative identity disorder
• attitudes
• beliefs
• skepticism
• survey
• professionals
• psychologists
• psychiatrists
• Israel