The dissociative disorders - Rarely considered and underdiagnosed

The dissociative disorders have often been underdiagnosed by psychiatric professionals. Reasons for this underdiagnosis are diverse and include: unfamiliarity with the diagnoses, unfamiliarity with dissociative symptoms, lack of appreciation of the epidemiology of dissociative disorders, and even disbelief in certain dissociative disorders diagnoses. In order to provide the clinician with a more complete and reliable diagnotic armamentarium, this article reviews the clinical phenomenology and epidemiology of the dissociative disorders.