‘Is there a relationship between Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) and depersonalisation and derealisation experiences in adulthood?: A Systematic Review’
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BackgroundDissociation occurs in “fight or flight” situations when someone is feeling overwhelmed. Depersonalisation/Derealisation disorder (DPDRD) is a type of dissociation that involves feeling removed from one’s self and reality. DPDRD has been linked with interpersonal abuse but research is less clear on the role childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has on this dissociative experience.MethodFollowing a systematic review protocol, four electronic database searches, a citation search and grey literature search were conducted. Overall, 10 papers assessing links between CSA and depersonalisation and derealisation were identified and quality assessed. A textual narrative synthesis was conducted to extract results from each study and identify patterns within the data. ResultsThe synthesis indicated that samples were predominantly female and White/Caucasian. Over half the papers identified an association between CSA and depersonalisation/derealisation although these relationships were mainly weak or moderate. Further analysis suggested that methodological issues with sampling may have caused some bias.ConclusionTentative links do exist between CSA and depersonalisation/derealisation, but methodological limitations within the studies, suggest possible biased results. Therefore, this review highlights a need for further research addressing these issues, to produce conclusive results. Keywords: Depersonalisation, derealisation, systematic review, childhood sexual abuse (CSA)
