2007/04/01 by Timo Giesbrecht, Tom Smeets, Harald Merckelbach +1 · 1 citation
Medicine · Psychology · Health Professions · Chemistry · #Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments #Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes #Infant Health and Development #Depersonalization #Derealization #Dissociative Experiences Scale #Dissociative #Psychology #Trier social stress test #Dissociative disorders #Clinical psychology #Dissociation (chemistry) #Anxiety #Burnout #Psychiatry #Fight-or-flight response #Cognition #Emotional exhaustion #Chemistry
paper · doi:10.1097/01.nmd.0000253822.60618.60
openalex publication_date 2007/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The relationship between dissociative tendencies, as measured with the Dissociative Experiences Scale and its amnesia, absorption/imaginative involvement, and depersonalization/derealization subscales, and HPA axis functioning was studied in 2 samples of undergraduate students (N = 58 and 67). Acute stress was induced by means of the Trier Social Stress Test. Subjective and physiological stress (i.e., cortisol) responses were measured. Individuals high on the depersonalization/derealization subscale of the Dissociative Experiences Scale exhibited more pronounced cortisol responses, while individuals high on the absorption subscale showed attenuated responses. Interestingly, subjective stress experiences, as indicated by the Tension-Anxiety subscale of the Profile of Mood States, were positively related to trait dissociation. The present findings illustrate how various types of dissociation (i.e., depersonalization/derealization, absorption) are differentially related to cortisol stress responses.