The dissociative disorders have often been underdiagnosed by psychiatric processionals. Reasons for this underdiagnosis are diverse and include: unfamiliarity with the diagnoses, unfamiliarity with dissociative symptomatology, lack of appreciation of the epidemiology of dissociative disorders, and even outright disbelief in certain dissociative disorders diagnoses, primarily dissociative identity disorder<sup>42 McHugh P.R. Witches, multiple personalities, and other psychiatric artefacts Nat Med 1995 ;  1 : 110-114  [cross-ref]

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti, 43 Mersky H. The manufacture of personalities: The production of multiple personality disorder Br J Psychiatry 1992 ;  160 : 327-340

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti, 46 Piper A.   Hoax and reality: The bizarre world of multiple personality disorder Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson (1997). 

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti</sup> and dissociative amnesia, especially if either the amnesia or identity alteration are related to criminal offenses.

In order to provide the clinician with a more complete and reliable diagnostic armamentarium, this article reviews the clinical phenomenology and epidemiology of the dissociative disorders. Following this review, several instruments useful in the diagnosis of dissociative disorders are described, including the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), Structured Clinical Interview for Dissociative Disorder, and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Finally, the diagnostic use of sodium amytal and hypnosis is described.