Suicide risk in dissociative disorders

Since the 1980s, after a period of neglect in the mid-20th Century, there has been a reawakening of interest in dissociative disorders. The aim of this paper is to describe the epidemiology and diagnostic classification of dissociative disorders and review studies concerning suicide risk and self-injurious behaviour associated with the various diagnoses included in the class of dissociative disorders and experiences related to dissociative disorders. Several studies have noted that the presence of severe dissociative experiences appears to be related to an inclination for self-mutilation and suicidal behavior, indicating that suicidal individuals utilize dissociation to a higher degree than non-suicidal individuals. It seems that psychiatric comorbidities, sexual abuse, deficits in cognitive processes and frustration in basic needs may reinforce each other, as well as reinforcing deficits in the patients’ behaviour, producing major interpersonal problems, severe depression and hopelessness. At the end of the process, the individual with a dissociative disorder experiences a cognitive state of constriction and reduced reasons for living.