Psychiatric Professional Beliefs Regarding Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, continues to be a highly controversial diagnosis. Controversy may arise due to differing opinions, perceptions, and observations of DID symptomology. The current study sought to examine the skepticism of the DID diagnosis in psychiatrists for a 10-year re-evaluation of the prevalence of skepticism, prevalence of psychiatrists’ beliefs about DID as sociocognitive or posttraumatic in origin, and the relationship between skepticism and origin model. Nine hundred licensed psychiatrists were contacted for participation with 120 responders. Results indicated that almost half of respondents indicated some level of skepticism regarding the clinical diagnosis of DID, though the majority endorsed the posttraumatic model of symptoms. Further, those endorsing the sociocognitive model of DID reported significantly more skepticism regarding the disorder