Identity state-dependent self-relevance and emotional intensity ratings of words in dissociative identity disorder: A controlled longitudinal study.

Introduction: Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is characterized by, among others, amnesic episodes and the recurrence of different dissociative identity states. While consistently observed in clinical settings, to our knowledge, no controlled research study has shown the degree to which different identity states report autobiographical knowledge over time. Hence, the current study investigates self-relevance and emotional intensity ratings of words longitudinally.

Methods: Data of 46 participants were included: 13 individuals with DID, 11 DID-simulating actors, and a control group of 22 paired individuals. Individuals with DID and DID simulators participated once in the neutral identity state (NIS) and once in the trauma-related dissociative identity state (TIS). The control group paired 11 healthy controls with 11 participants with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a NIS-TIS pair. Self-relevance ratings of different word types were collected in a baseline and a follow-up session, on average 6 weeks apart. A mixed ANOVA design was used to assess the effects of group, session, word type, and dissociative identity state.

Results: All participants in TIS and individuals with DID in NIS rated self-relevant trauma-related words more negatively. In the NIS, the control group rated self-relevant trauma-related words as less negative, whereas the ratings of simulating actors were intermediate. There was no group-dependent longitudinal effect for intensity ratings.

Conclusions: This study was the first to confirm clinical observations that self-relevant and emotional processing are different between individuals with DID and controls, but consistent over time. Actors were unable to perfectly simulate DID. The finding that ratings of self-relevant trauma-related words differ between subgroups as included in the study is in line with clinical observations.