Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0011551 (depersonalization)
 1,117 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The role of neurologic factors leading to the appearance of anxiety attacks is incompletely understood. The case of a 69-year-old woman with no previous psychiatric illness who began to experience frequent anxiety attacks is described. These attacks were later associated with depersonalization and visual perceptual disturbances. The symptoms disappeared following the discovery and removal of a right temporal lobe meningioma.
 ...
PMID:Anxiety attacks in a patient with a right temporal lobe meningioma. 370 Mar 48

The study discussed in this article examined the relationship between the degree of involvement with clients with severe mental illness and social workers' job satisfaction and burnout. A total of 128 social workers were administered a questionnaire that included three scales: an involvement scale, a job satisfaction measure, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Greater involvement was related significantly to higher levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Overall, results suggest that social workers are affected negatively by this type of work. The implications for the social work profession are discussed as well as the importance of social support systems at the work setting that will help social workers cope more effectively with stressful work situations.
 ...
PMID:The impact of clients' mental illness on social workers' job satisfaction and burnout. 1034 Jan 61

The author provides a preliminary framework for a systematic and dynamic understanding of dissociation through a consideration of the theories of Hughlings Jackson. Jackson's ideas are briefly reviewed. He saw the proper scientific investigation of mental illness as an experimental investigation of mind. Accordingly, his argument begins with this fundamental concept. His views of the brain-mind relationship and of mind, or self, resemble modern conceptions. He viewed the self as double and focused on those disruptions of the self system which he called the "dreamy state." This state involves an "uncoupling" of normal consciousness, resulting in the loss of the most recently developed forms of memory and of the stream of consciousness. Dissociation is seen here as analogous to the dreamy state. Jacksonian theory predicts the main features of dissociation, i.e., constriction of consciousness, a particular form of amnesia, disaggregation of perceptual phenomena, depersonalization, derealization, and hallucinosis. It leads to the view that dissociation can be seen, in essence, as an uncoupling of consciousness.
 ...
PMID:The contribution of Hughlings Jackson to an understanding of dissociation. 1113 56

We examined racial differences in burnout among case managers working with people with severe mental illness, using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Compared to Caucasians, African Americans reported significantly less Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization, but did not differ on levels of Personal Accomplishment. These differences could not be explained by geographic location or perceptions of the work environment; however, age accounted for group differences in Depersonalization. Racial incongruence with caseload appeared to be one factor in burnout, particularly for Emotional Exhaustion. Race of both staff and clients may be important to consider in understanding staff burnout.
 ...
PMID:An exploratory analysis of racial factors in staff burnout among assertive community treatment workers. 1141 17

The term depersonalization has been vaguely used in clinical contexts and there is confusion over its nosological positioning. Although the syndrome has been assigned a niche of its own in the European psychiatric taxonomy, the American's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III, IV) labeled it under the term Dissociative Disorder. The latter, which does not agree with the classical theory of Janet, seems to have no basis on traditional psychopathology and is not derived from any dissociative theories. In this paper the descriptive characteristics of depersonalization are discussed with regard to the features of "observing self" and the relationship between experiences and selves, according to which the authors distinguish two types of depersonalization: an "excessive-self-reflecting type" and an "absorbed-in-experience type". Whereas the former coinsides with the typical depersonalization neurosis, in which excessive self-reflection plays an important role in reducing the sense of reality, in the latter over-absorption in some situations leads the patient to construct a wall to block out reality. We suggest that in making a distinction between these two types, the psychopathology of depersonalization will be better clarified.
 ...
PMID:[Two types of depersonalization--reconsideration from a descriptive-phenomenological view point]. 1151 80

At first sight, the concept of "person" appears in psychiatric terminology only in the negative sense, i.e., as in depersonalization. However, self-alienation may be regarded as the hallmark of mental illness in general and is based on the ambiguous structure of human personality itself. Thorough analysis of the concept of the person is therefore indispensable to understanding psychopathology. This paper focuses on the contrast of "persona" ("mask" or "role") on the one hand to "person" as an individual self on the other. Their dialectical relation derives from basic anthropological structures such as sociality, self-reference, self-transcendence, and fictionality. As can be shown, the historical and cultural ontogeny of the personality includes experiences of self-alienation which may become relevant for psychiatry as depersonalization syndromes. The example of depression is used to illustrate vital and emotional depersonalization, whereas schizophrenia may be described as "intentional depersonalization." Following this line of reasoning, the classic schizophrenic experiences of alien control or thought insertion are interpreted as a disturbance in the fundamental personality structures.
 ...
PMID:[Concept of the person in psychiatry]. 1196 55

Depersonalisation (DP) and derealisation (DR) are subjective experiences of unreality in, respectively, one's sense of self and the outside world. These experiences occur on a continuum from transient episodes that are frequently reported in healthy individuals under certain situational conditions to a chronic psychiatric disorder that causes considerable distress (depersonalisation disorder, DPD). Despite the relatively high rates of reporting these symptoms, little research has been conducted into psychological treatments for this disorder. We suggest that there is compelling evidence to link DPD with the anxiety disorders, particularly panic. This paper proposes that it is the catastrophic appraisal of the normally transient symptoms of DP/DR that results in the development of a chronic disorder. We suggest that if DP/DR symptoms are misinterpreted as indicative of severe mental illness or brain dysfunction, a vicious cycle of increasing anxiety and consequently increased DP/DR symptoms will result. Moreover, cognitive and behavioural responses to symptoms such as specific avoidances, 'safety behaviours' and cognitive biases serve to maintain the disorder by increasing awareness of the symptoms, heightening the perceived threat and preventing disconfirmation of the catastrophic misinterpretations. A coherent model facilitates the development of potentially effective cognitive and behavioural interventions.
 ...
PMID:Depersonalisation disorder: a cognitive-behavioural conceptualisation. 1458 13

Depersonalization disorder (DPD) remains one of the few disorders in modern psychiatry for which no treatments are established that are even partially effective, whether pharmacological or psychotherapeutic. Depersonalization disorder is a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition dissociative disorder characterized by a pervasive subjective sense of unreality and detachment with intact reality testing. Two recent controlled medication trials, one with lamotrigine and one with fluoxetine, failed to show efficacy. There is some evidence for dysregulation of endogenous opioid systems in depersonalization, and a few studies have suggested that opioid antagonists may have efficacy in the treatment of dissociation and depersonalization symptoms. In this prospective open treatment trial, 14 subjects were recruited and treated with naltrexone for 6 weeks to a maximum dose of 100 mg/d (first 7 subjects) or 10 weeks to a maximum dose of 250 mg/d (next 7 subjects). Mean naltrexone dose was 120 mg/d. There was an average 30% reduction of symptoms with treatment, as measured by 3 validated dissociation scales. Three patients were very much improved, and 1 patient was much improved with naltrexone treatment. These findings are potentially promising in a highly treatment-refractory disorder for which no treatment guidelines exist and warrant a randomized controlled trial.
 ...
PMID:An open trial of naltrexone in the treatment of depersonalization disorder. 1587 8

Depersonalisation (DP) and derealisation (DR) are subjective experiences of unreality in, respectively, one's sense of self and the outside world. These experiences occur on a continuum from transient episodes that are frequently reported in healthy individuals to a chronic psychiatric disorder that causes considerable distress (depersonalisation disorder: DPD). Despite the relatively high rates of reporting these symptoms, little research has been conducted into psychological treatments for this disorder. We report on an open study where 21 patients with DPD were treated individually with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The therapy involved helping the patients re-interpret their symptoms in a non-threatening way as well as reducing avoidances, safety behaviours and symptom monitoring. Significant improvements in patient-defined measures of DP/DR severity as well as standardised measures of dissociation, depression, anxiety and general functioning were found at post-treatment and six-months follow-up. Moreover, there were significant reductions in clinician ratings on the Present State Examination (Wing, Cooper & Sartorius, 1974), and 29% of participants no longer met criteria for DPD at the end of therapy. These initial results suggest that a CBT approach to DPD may be effective, but further trials with larger sample sizes and more rigorous research methodology are needed to determine the specificity of this approach.
 ...
PMID:Cognitive-behaviour therapy for depersonalisation disorder: an open study. 1600 1

Care of a person with mental illness involves multiple burdens, possibly leading to burnout. This study compares partners of persons with schizophrenia and depression with nursing staff based on dimensions of burnout. Nursing staff and partners of patients with schizophrenia or depression were consecutively recruited from psychiatric hospitals and interviewed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory. No significant differences were found in the three dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment) for the two groups of caregivers. About one fourth of the respondents in both groups showed a high degree of burnout. Professional and nonprofessional caregivers face a similar degree of burden and need support to perform their caretaking tasks.
 ...
PMID:Burnout of caregivers: a comparison between partners of psychiatric patients and nurses. 1684 76


1 2 3 4 Next >>