Sleep-related (psychogenic) dissociative disorders as parasomnias associated with a psychiatric disorder: update on reported cases

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To update the literature on the diagnostic category of sleep-related dissociative disorders (SRDDs), involving psychogenic dissociation, since the time of their inclusion in the parasomnias section of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, second edition, in 2005; to summarize the most salient clinical and video-polysomnographic (vPSG) findings and typical clinical profile from all reported cases; and to provide the rationale for the re-inclusion of the group of SRDDs in future editions of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. METHODS: A systematic computerized literature search was conducted searching for SRDDs, nocturnal dissociative disorders, and nocturnal dissociation. RESULTS: Nine additional cases were identified, with sufficient clinical history and vPSG findings to justify the diagnosis of SRDDs, supplementing the 11 cases cited in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, second edition, for a total of 20 cases. Twenty-six other cases with vPSG testing were found, with 18 cases reported in abstracts and 8 cases reported in a publication with compelling histories of SRDDs and 2 consecutive vPSG studies, but without the vPSG findings explicitly reported for any case. In more than half of all reported cases, there was objective diagnostic confirmation for SRDDs consisting of the hallmark finding of abnormal nocturnal behaviors arising from sustained electroencephalography wakefulness, or during wake–sleep transitions, without epileptiform activity. These nocturnal behaviors often replicated daytime psychogenic dissociative behaviors. A history of trauma (physical, sexual, emotional) was an almost universal finding, along with major psychopathology. All patients, except for one, had prominent histories of daytime dissociative disorders. Many of the patients were referred on account of a presumed parasomnia. CONCLUSIONS: Cases of SRDDs continue to be reported, often as a “parasomnia mimic,” with psychogenic dissociation being clearly distinguished from physiologic sleep–wake dissociation as found in primary sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, etc. Eleven reasons are provided for why the category of SRDDs should be re-included in future editions of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, and in the parasomnias section. CITATION: Schenck CH, Cramer Bornemann M, Kaplish N, Eiser AS. Sleep-related (psychogenic) dissociative disorders as parasomnias associated with a psychiatric disorder: update on reported cases. J Clin Sleep Med. 2021;17(4):803–810.