Frequency of anxiety and depression in dissociative trance (possession) disorder

Abstract

Background: The possession of a person by God or spirit is an age-old one. The ICD-10 has recorded the presence of a possession and trance disorder before formal featuring it in the 10th edition as a category of dissociative (conversion) disorders. The current study sought to determine the frequency of anxiety and depression among the patients presented in tertiary care hospitals with dissociative trance (possession) disorder, along with gender differences.
 Patients and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at l Department of Psychiatry, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital Lahore over one year: December 2019 till December 2020. A sample of 350 patients, who met the ICD-10 criteria of dissociative trance (Possession) disorder, was recruited in the study through purposive sampling technique. Demographic information sheet and Urdu version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) rating scale were used as assessment measures. The data were stored and analyzed in SPSS version 20. Descriptive analysis i.e., means, standard deviations, percentages, and frequencies, and inferential statistics i.e., independent sample t-test, were performed to explore objectives.
 Results: The results indicate that 13.2 % of patients with dissociative trance disorder scored in the normal range of depression, 20.7% fall in borderline depression while abnormal, and 66.1% in abnormal cases of depression was found in 66.1% of patients. For anxiety, results demonstrate that 28.2% of patients fall in the category of normal anxiety, 3 31.5% in borderline anxiety, and 40.3% fall in the case of abnormal anxiety. Differences for the gender of patients in depression and anxiety scores were evaluated by independent sample t-test and significant differences were found in depression and anxiety scores of male and female patients with dissociative trance disorder (p-value<0.05). Female patients scored high on depression (19.84±6.68) and anxiety (16.02±5.54) scale than male patients’ scores for depression (27.47±5.06) and anxiety (19.35±4.95).
 Conclusion: There is a definite frequency of depression and anxiety among patients with, dissociative trance disorder while females are high in the scores. This can help to decrease the comorbidity associated with dissociative trance disorder, reduce the disease burden and ensure a better outcome of treatment