Academic articles

Although many of these articles are intended for academics and scientists, they may be of interest to some people with DPAFU. In addition, if you are seeing a healthcare professional they may wish to track down some of the articles for themselves.

‘Emotional memory in depersonalization disorder: a functional MRI study’ by N. Medford, B. Brierley, M. Brammer, E. T. Bullmore, A. S. David and M. L. Phillips in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 2006, Volume 148, pp. 93–102.

This study explored our memory for emotional words and found that people who report DPAFU showed different brain activity to people who didn’t when asked to remember previously read emotional words, or words within emotionally charged sentences.

‘Lamotrigine as an add-on treatment for depersonalization disorder: a retrospective study of 32 cases’ by M. Sierra, D. Baker, N. Medford, E. Lawrence, M. Patel, M. L. Phillips and A. S. David in Clinical Neuropharmacology, 2006, Volume 29, issue 5, pp. 253–8.

The results of this small trial suggest that a significant number of patients with DPAFU may respond to lamotrigine when combined with antidepressant medication. The results are sufficiently positive to prompt a larger controlled evaluation of lamotrigine as an ‘add-on’ treatment in DPAFU.

‘Autonomic response in the perception of disgust and happiness in depersonalization disorder’ by M. Sierra, C. Senior, M. L. Phillips and A. S. David in Psychiatry Research, 2006, Volume 145, pp. 225–31.

This study measured skin conductance (a measure of how the body reacts to emotions) in response to faces expressing happiness and disgust and found that people with DPAFU showed lowered responses to disgusted faces only. This is indicative of emotional numbing to unpleasant and threatening stimuli.

‘Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Depersonalisation Disorder: An Open Study’ by E. Hunter, D. Baker, M. Phillips, M. Sierra and A. S. David in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2005, Volume 43, issue 9, pp. 1121–30.

This small-scale study explored the use of CBT for symptoms of DPAFU. The initial results suggest that a CBT approach to DPAFU may be effective, but further trials with larger sample sizes and more rigorous research methodology are needed to determine how useful it is.

‘Understanding and treating depersonalisation disorder’ by N. Medford, M. Sierra, D. Baker and A. S. David in Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 2005, Volume 11, pp. 92–100.

A review paper introducing DPAFU and discussing various treatment options.

‘Depersonalisation Disorder’ by M. L. Phillips, E. Hunter, D. Baker, N. Medford, M. Sierra and A. S. David in Current Medical Literature – Psychiatry, 2005, Volume 16, issue 1, pp. 1–5.

A brief overview of the clinical features and prevalence of DPAFU, along with a review of the latest in drug and CBT treatments.

‘Neuroplasticity: Changes in grey matter induced by training’ by B. Draganski, C. Gaser, V. Busch, G. Schuierer, U. Bogdahn and A. May in Nature, 2004, Volume 427, pp. 311–12.

As we described on page 26, this brain imaging study of 12 healthy volunteers showed that the structure of the brain can change as a result of a person’s behavior, in this case learning to juggle.

‘The epidemiology of depersonalization and derealization: a systematic review’ by E. Hunter, M. Sierra and A.S. David in Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2004, Volume 39, issue 1, pp. 9–18.

Surveys demonstrate that short-lasting symptoms of DPAFU in the general population are common. In addition, DPAFU appears to be common in normal and psychiatric populations.

‘Depersonalization Disorder: A Contemporary Overview’ by D. Simeon in CNS Drugs, 2004, Volume 18, issue 6, pp. 343–54.

A review paper explaining the clinical manifestations, prevalence and potential treatment options.

‘Fluoxetine therapy in depersonalisation disorder: Randomized controlled trial’ by D. Simeon, O. Guralnik, J. Schmeidler and M. Knutelska in British Journal of Psychiatry, 2004, Volume 185, issue 1, pp. 31–6.

Fifty-four participants were randomly given either fluoxetine or a placebo in a double blind trial (during the trial neither patients nor researchers knew who was taking real medication and who was taking a placebo). Fluoxetine was not effective in treating DPAFU.

‘Depersonalisation Disorder: clinical features of 204 cases’ by D. Baker, E. Hunter, E. J. Lawrence, N. Medford, M. Patel, C. Senior, M. Sierra, M. V. Lambert, M. L. Phillips and A. S. David in British Journal of Psychiatry, 2003, Volume 182, pp. 428–33.

This paper presents an overview of the clinical features of DPAFU drawn from responses to a questionnaire given to patients referred to our Unit at the Maudsley Hospital.

‘Depersonalisation Disorder: A Cognitive–Behavioural Conceptualisation’ by E. Hunter, M. Phillips, T. Chalder, M. Sierra and A. S. David in Behavioural Research & Therapy, 2003, Volume 41, issue 12, pp. 1451–67.

This paper presents a cognitive behavioral model of DPAFU.

‘Chronic Depersonalization following illicit drug use: Review of Forty Cases’ by N. Medford, D. Baker, E. Hunter, M. Sierra, E. J. Lawrence, M. L. Phillips and A. S. David in Addiction, 2003, Volume 98, issue 12, pp. 1731–36.

This study suggests that the nature of drug-induced DPAFU is not on the whole different from DPAFU that is not drug-induced.

‘Feeling unreal: a depersonalisation disorder update of 117 cases’ by D. Simeon, M. Knutelska, D. Nelson and O. Guralnik in Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2003, Volume 64, issue 9, pp. 990–7.

A report on the clinical characteristics and prevalence of DPAFU.

‘Autonomic response in depersonalisation disorder’ by M. Sierra, C. Senior, J. Dalton, M. McDonough, A. Bond, M. L. Phillips, A. M. O’Dwyer and A. S. David in Archives of General Psychiatry, 2002, Volume 59, issue 9, pp. 833–8.

This study measured skin conductance (a measure of emotional activation in the body) in response to disturbing pictures and found that people with DPAFU showed reduced responses indicative of ‘emotional numbing’.

‘Depersonalisation Disorder: Thinking without Feeling’ by M. L. Phillips, N. Medford, C. Senior, E. T. Bullmore, J. Suckling, M. J. Brammer, C. Andrew, M. Sierra, S. C. R. Williams and A. S. David in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 2001, Volume 108, pp. 145–160.

One of the earliest fMRI (a type of brain scan that shows which areas are activated) studies of DPAFU, which showed underactivity in key emotion-processing brain regions.

‘Depersonalisation research at the Maudsley Hospital’ by C. Senior, E. Hunter, M. V. Lambert, N. C. Medford, M. Sierra, M. L. Phillips and A. S. David in The Psychologist, 2001, Volume 14, issue 3, pp. 128–32.

A non-specialist article reviewing the work of our Unit at the Maudsley Hospital.

‘The Cambridge Depersonalization Scale. A new instrument for the measurement of depersonalisation’ by M. Sierra-Siegert and G. Berrios in Psychiatry Research, 2000, Volume 93, pp. 153–64.

Introducing the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale – a self-report measure of DPAFU (see Appendix I).

‘Development, reliability, and validity of a dissociation scale’ by E. M. Bernstein and F. W. Putnam in Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 1986, Volume 174, pp. 727–35.

Describes and presents the Dissociative Experiences Scale (see page 12).