Multiple Personality Disorder: Phenomenology of Selected Variables in Comparison to Major Depression

Various findings from a retrospective survey of355 multiplepersonality disorder (MPD) patients and 235 major depression patients, who served as a comparison group, are discussed. The survey was completed by 448 independent clinicians, 142 ofwhom contributed information on both an MPD and a major depression patient. The study confirms recent findings in the literature that MPD is not a rare disorder, its sufferers include a preponderance offemales, and it is highly correlated with childhood trauma, especially sexual and physical abuse. In addition, the study indicates that clinicians who diagnose MPD perceive clinical phenomena in a manner similar to those clinicians who have not yet made this diagnosis.