Switch function and pathological dissociation in acute psychiatric inpatients
Journal
PLoS ONE
Journal Volume
11
Journal Issue
4
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
Abstract
Swift switching, along with atypical ability on updating and inhibition, has been found in non-clinical dissociators. However, whether swift switching is a cognitive endophenotype that intertwines with traumatisation and pathological dissociation remains unknown. Unspecified acute psychiatric patients were recruited to verify a hypothesis that pathological dissociation is associated with swift switching and traumatisation may explain this relationship. Behavioural measures of intellectual function and three executive functions including updating, switching and inhibition were administered, together with standardised scales to evaluate pathological dissociation and traumatisation. Our results showed superior control ability on switching and updating in inpatients who displayed more symptoms of pathological dissociation. When all three executive functions were entered as predictors, in addition to intellectual quotient and demographic variables to regress upon pathological dissociation, switching rather than updating remained the significant predictor. Importantly, the relationship between pathological dissociation and switching became non-significant when the effect of childhood trauma were controlled. The results support a trauma-related switching hypothesis which postulates swift switching as a cognitive endophenotype of pathological dissociation; traumatisation in childhood may explain the importance of swift switching. ? 2016 Chiu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Other Subjects
acute disease; adult; Article; childhood; controlled study; demography; disease association; endophenotype; executive function; female; hospital patient; human; intelligence quotient; major clinical study; male; mental capacity; mental disease; mental function; mental performance; pathological dissociation; prediction; psychotrauma; symptom; anxiety; cognition; depression; dissociative disorder; mental disease; panic; paranoid psychosis; phobia; physiology; posttraumatic stress disorder; psychological rating scale; psychology; psychosis; Adult; Anxiety; Cognition; Depression; Dissociative Disorders; Executive Function; Female; Humans; Inpatients; Male; Mental Disorders; Panic Disorder; Paranoid Disorders; Phobic Disorders; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychotic Disorders; Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Type
journal article