Contents

Disclaimer

Oxford University Press makes no representation, express or implied, that the drug dosages in this book are correct. Readers must therefore always check the product information and clinical procedures with the most up to date published product information and data sheets provided by the manufacturers and the most recent codes of conduct and safety regulations. The authors and the publishers do not accept responsibility or legal liability for any errors in the text or for the misuse or misapplication of material in this work. Except where otherwise stated, drug dosages and recommendations are for the non-pregnant adult who is not breastfeeding.

Show Summary Details
Page of

Depersonalization disorder 

Depersonalization disorder
Chapter:
Depersonalization disorder
Author(s):

Nick Medford

, Mauricio Sierra

, and Anthony S. David

DOI:
10.1093/med/9780199696758.003.0101
Page of

PRINTED FROM OXFORD MEDICINE ONLINE (www.oxfordmedicine.com). © Oxford University Press, 2021. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Medicine Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 20 January 2021

Depersonalization, a term coined by Dugas in 1898, is defined in DSM-IV as ‘an alteration in the experience of self so that one feels detached from and as if one is an outside observer of one's outside mental processes or body’. Brief, self-limiting experiences of depersonalization commonly occur in healthy people in the context of fatigue, intense stress, or during/after intoxication with alcohol or illicit drugs. However, some people experience chronic depersonalization of a disturbing intensity, causing significant distress and impacting on quality-of-life and daily functioning. This may occur as a primary depersonalization disorder (DPD), or in the context of other psychiatric or neurological conditions. In this chapter, we consider the primary disorder, although some sections are also relevant to secondary depersonalization. The depersonalization experience is one of feeling strangely altered and unreal, in a way that sufferers often find very hard to convey. It is often accompanied by the related phenomenon of derealization, in which the person's surroundings are experienced as somehow remote and lacking immediacy and vibrancy, as if the world itself has become oddly unreal. Patients with persistent depersonalization and derealization often use the analogy of feeling as if they are on the set of a play or film, where nothing is real and they are acting out a role rather than living a real life.

Access to the complete content on Oxford Medicine Online requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts for each book and chapter without a subscription.

Please subscribe or login to access full text content.

If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.

For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.