Dissociative Features in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Latent Profile Analysis

Objective: The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) characterizes the dissociative subtype of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in terms of the individual meeting the criteria for PTSD and additionally reporting symptoms of depersonalization and/or derealization. The current study aimed to examine whether a dissociative PTSD profile may include alternative features of dissociation and whether it could be differentiated from a nondissociative PTSD profile on certain psychopathologies and demographics. Method: Data from 309 trauma-exposed participants, collected through Amazon Mechanical Turk, were subjected to latent profile analysis. Regression analyses were used to examine the predictors of latent classes. Results: Three discrete profiles named Baseline, PTSD, and Dissociative profile were uncovered. All examined features of dissociation were significantly elevated in the Dissociative profile. Anxiety, male sex, being employed, and having a minority racial background significantly predicted the Dissociative profile relative to the PTSD profile. Conclusions: The study points to the importance of alternative symptoms of dissociation in the dissociative PTSD subtype beyond the symptoms of depersonalization and derealization.