The dissociative subtype of PTSD in women with substance use disorders: Exploring symptom and exposure profiles

The dissociative subtype of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was officially introduced in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). In accordance with this new classification, prior studies using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) empirically identified a subgroup of patients that were characterized by a high severity of dissociative symptoms. Despite the high prevalence of PTSD in patients with substance use disorders (SUD), however, no LCA studies on the dissociative subtype of PTSD exist in this population so far. Therefore, the current study aimed to identify subgroups of patients with different symptom and exposure profiles in patients with SUD and PTSD. It was assumed that one symptom and exposure profile could be identified that would be characterized by higher dissociative symptoms, higher additional psychopathology and a higher burden of childhood trauma, as compared to other subgroups. In N = 258 female patients with SUD and PTSD, clinical characteristics of dissociative symptoms, PTSD severity, borderline personality disorder (BPD), depression, childhood trauma and substance abuse were assessed. To identify symptom and exposure profiles, Latent Class Analysis was applied. A three-class solution indicated the best model fit to our data. One class was characterized by a high probability of dissociative symptoms (D-PTSD class), whereas the other two classes were characterized by lower probabilities of dissociative symptoms. The D-PTSD class encompassed 18.7% of the patients. In accordance with our hypothesis, the D-PTSD class showed higher probabilities of PTSD severity, borderline personality disorder symptoms, depressive symptoms, childhood emotional and sexual abuse, childhood emotional neglect, and drug abuse. Our results indicate that the dissociative subtype of PTSD could also be identified in a sample of female patients with SUD. Patients with SUD and PTSD characterized by the dissociative subtype showed more severe psychopathological symptoms than the remaining patients, indicating enhanced clinical needs for this vulnerable group.