Desire to dissociate: implications for problematic drinking in college students with childhood or adolescent sexual abuse exposure.

Alcohol use to replace inadequate dissociative capabilities, or chemical dissociation, has been linked to college students with childhood or adolescent sexual abuse (CASA). Insofar as CASA-exposed persons experience a restricted range of dissociative capabilities, what remains relatively unclear is whether some desire to achieve greater dissociative experiences. Nonclinical levels of dissociative tendencies have positively predicted alcohol-related blackouts in CASA-exposed students, and dissociation mediated the relations between CASA and intoxication frequency.