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Stress, Dissociation and Schizophrenia

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Handbook of Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, Volume II

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Abstract

Recent findings indicate that binding and synchronization of distributed activities are crucial for the mechanism of consciousness and there is increased evidence that disrupted feature binding produces disintegration of consciousness in schizophrenia. These data suggest that the disrupted binding and disintegration of consciousness could be related to dissociation, which is historically linked to Bleuler’s concept of splitting in schizophrenia. Main topic of this chapter is influence of stress on brain structures, dissociation of consciousness and increased sensitivity to stressors. Stress induced sensitization likely may influence limbic irritability and epileptic-like activity through changes in brain synchronization and complexity that affect binding and other mechanisms of consciousness. These changes in brain dynamics may manifest in the form of cognitive, affective and memory symptoms that are similar to psychopathological symptoms, which occur in temporal lobe seizures but in non-epileptic conditions. These findings have also practical implications for pharmacological treatment because several patients with schizophrenia and also other patients who experienced extreme stress could be identified for anticonvulsant treatment.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by research grants MSM0021620849, MSM0021622404 and support of research project of Center for Neuropsychiatric Research of Traumatic Stress 1M06039 by Czech Ministry of Education.

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  1. Department of Psychiatry, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Center for Neuropsychiatric Research of Traumatic Stress, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Petr Bob

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  1. , Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technolog, Haifa, Israel

    Michael Ritsner

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Bob, P. (2011). Stress, Dissociation and Schizophrenia. In: Ritsner, M. (eds) Handbook of Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, Volume II. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0831-0_3

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