DID shows on brain scans

[Three Roses]

Interesting article on DID about it showing on brain scans. Link to article: https://www.maudsleybrc.nihr.ac.uk/posts/2018/december/computers-can-spot-the-difference-between-healthy-brains-and-the-brains-of-people-with-dissociative-identity-disorder/?platform=hootsuite

The article states - "The findings of our present study are important because they provide the first evidence of a biological basis for distinguishing between individuals with DID and healthy individuals. Ultimately, the application of pattern recognition techniques could prevent unnecessary suffering through earlier and more accurate diagnosis, facilitating faster and more targeted therapeutic interventions."

I don't always like to follow links so here's the full article.

Machine-learning and neuroimaging techniques have been used to accurately distinguish between individuals with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and healthy individuals, on the basis of their brain structure, in new research part funded by the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre and published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.

Researchers performed MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) brain scans on 75 female study participants — 32 with independently confirmed diagnoses of DID and 43 who were healthy controls. The two groups were carefully matched for demographics including age, years of education and ancestry.

Using machine-learning techniques to recognise patterns in the brain scans, the researchers were able to discriminate between the two groups with an overall accuracy of 73%, significantly higher than the level of accuracy you would expect by chance.

This research, using the largest ever sample of individuals with DID in a brain imaging study, is the first to demonstrate that individuals with DID can be distinguished from healthy individuals on the basis of their brain structure.

DID, formerly known as 'multiple personality disorder', is one of the most disputed and controversial mental health disorders, with serious problems around under diagnosis and misdiagnosis. Many patients with DID share a history of years of misdiagnoses, inefficient pharmacological treatment and several hospitalisations. 

It is the most severe of all dissociative disorders, involving multiple identity states and recurrent amnesia. Dissociative disorders may ensue when dissociation is used as a way of surviving complex and sustained trauma during childhood, when the brain and personality are still developing.

Dr Simone Reinders, Senior Research Associate at the Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London led the multi-centre study involving two centres from the Netherlands, the University Medical Centre in Groningen and the Amsterdam Medical Centre, and one from Switzerland, the University Hospital in Zurich.

Commenting on the research, Dr Reinders said: "DID diagnosis is controversial and individuals with DID are often misdiagnosed. From the moment of seeking treatment for symptoms, to the time of an accurate diagnosis of DID, individuals receive an average of four misdiagnoses and spend seven years in mental health services.

"The findings of our present study are important because they provide the first evidence of a biological basis for distinguishing between individuals with DID and healthy individuals. Ultimately, the application of pattern recognition techniques could prevent unnecessary suffering through earlier and more accurate diagnosis, facilitating faster and more targeted therapeutic interventions."

'Aiding the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder: A pattern recognition study of brain biomarkers', British Journal of Psychiatry, Antje A.T. S. Reinders, Andre F. Marquand, Yolanda R. Schlumpf, Sima Chalavi, Eline M. Vissia, Ellert R.S. Nijenhuis, Paola Dazzan, Lutz Jäncke, * J. Veltman


Tags: Dissociative Identity Disorder - Biomarkers & genomics - Neuroimaging - Precision psychiatry -

By NIHR Maudsley BRC at 7 Dec 2018, 16:18 PM

[Jdog]

Fascinating!  Thanks for passing this along to us!

[Kizzie]

I saw that on Twitter - you have to love technological advances that demonstrate conclusively trauma does change people physically not just psychologically. It left me wondering what brain scans of people with CPTSD might show considering many of us suffer from dissociative symptoms.    In any event, if it were to lead to "faster and more targeted therapeutic interventions" as this study suggests, put me down for a scan yup 

[Blueberry]

  to those brain scans, apart from a frightened part of me who says "but what if my scan proves I don't have cptsd after all??" Maybe that would mean healing has taken place??

[Three Roses]

JD - you're very welcome 👍☺️

Kizzie - This made me chuckle:

put me down for a scan yup 

BB -  I felt the same sense of... idk, caution or something - not exactly fear - doubt? I know I dissociate, and I sometimes say things that I realize only after I've said them have come from me - but I don't lose track of time - I don't know exactly where I fall on the spectrum but don't count myself a candidate for official DID.

[Kizzie]

I wasn't thinking of any of us actually having DID, it was more that because we have CPTSD there may be changes in our brains (besides being more prone to dissociating than the general population) neuroscience may be able to identify and in turn that may lead to "faster and more targeted therapeutic interventions". 

For example, I wonder what a brain scan would show when we are triggered and have an EF?  What would it look like compared to others who don't have CPTSD when they have a 'normal' fear response?  Or, what would our brains be like when we are asked to remember a traumatic incident in our lives compared to those who don't have CPTSD? I wonder if that scan would show less of the brain working to deal with the trauma (as in the theory behind such therapies as EMDR and neurofeedback) than others who don't have CPTSD? 

Anyway, I'm hopeful that neuroscience will prove fruitful for all of us much as medicine has (unfortunately) linked trauma to all kinds of physical issues.   CPTSD is not just psychological so "Go teams neuroscience and medicine!"

PS - TR, I love your new avatar, especially the look on its face 

[Blueberry]

I wasn't thinking of any of us actually having DID, it was more that because we have CPTSD there may be changes in our brains (besides being more prone to dissociating than the general population) neuroscience may be able to identify and in turn that may lead to "faster and more targeted therapeutic interventions". 

For example, I wonder what a brain scan would show when we are triggered and have an EF?  What would it look like compared to others who don't have CPTSD when they have a 'normal' fear response?  Or, what would our brains be like when we are asked to remember a traumatic incident in our lives compared to those who don't have CPTSD? I wonder if that scan would show less of the brain working to deal with the trauma (as in the theory behind such therapies as EMDR and neurofeedback) than others who don't have CPTSD? 

In fact I think I've read some of that somewhere. Possibly not in English so I couldn't link even if I knew where. Anyway that's what I meant. Doc says "Sorry Ms. Blueberry you don't have cptsd after all. You've just been pretending all these years." OK, it's a minor EF. Brain numbed out and a few other symptoms.