Background
Dissociative disorder is a complex,
protean, and intriguing condition whose understanding and treatment are still
controversial among clinicians. The occurrence of dissociative symptoms is often
unpredictable and sudden, which disturbs the social and daily function of
individuals with this condition. Therefore, it requires our clinical
attention; However, there is a general understanding among clinicians that
there is no psychotropic medication that improves dissociative symptoms1. Our clinical observations sometimes give us a glimpse of how
some chemical agents might affect the degree and nature of dissociative
conditions. Notably, some psychedelic or anesthetic agents are known to be
“dissociative,” causing dissociation-like experiences among people without
known dissociative disorder.
Among I
initially noticed that some many abusive substances could
markedly alter the dissociative symptoms in some patients. Especially,
alcohol appears to affect the dissociative conditions in a potent way. One of my ce I had
a chance to observe a patient who patient, showed a distinct
change in his clinical symptom soon after he consumed alcohol. He was a
middle-aged corporate employee with dissociative identity disorder (DID) was well who
adapted to his daily office work. One day during his regular clinical visit, he
was composed as usual and reported only occasional switching into different
personalities. After the visit, on his way home he had a can of beer and got inebriated
and decided to come back to have another “small chat” with me. When I saw him
again, he demonstrated a rapid and uncontrollable shifts in personality. At one
moment, he demonstrated a very challenging and emotional male personality
state, making some derogatory remarks, then but he
shifted back to his usual composed main personality and apologized to me for
the rude behavior, (usually, this patient is often co-conscious of other
personalities’ remarks and behaviors), only to go back to his challenging and
wild state. In my observation, even consuming a small amount of alcohol or
benzodiazepine can significantly reduce the threshold separating different
personalities in DID patients.