Patients with Complex Trauma and Dissociation Improve Following Specialized Inpatient Treatment

What is it about?

Following admission to a specialized trauma unit, patients with complex trauma and dissociation showed significant improvement in adaptive functioning capacities and emotion regulation skills while demonstrating trends for lower unwanted dissociation, including significantly less dissociative absorption.

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Photo by Abbat on Unsplash

Photo by Abbat on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Individuals with complex trauma reactions and dissociative abilities often have specific mental health needs that are unlikely to be addressed during a psychiatric admission to a general hospital unit. This can result in frequent destabilization and readmission, requiring increased utilization of health care services and a higher financial burden to patients, healthcare systems, and government funded programs alike. What’s more, many of the specialized inpatient units focusing on complex trauma and dissociation in the United Stated have closed in recent years or been transitioned to standard acute admission units leaving the specialized needs of this population largely unaddressed. Our study results show that specialized inpatient treatment has large to very large effects in lowering critical stabilization factors (i.e., adaptive functioning, emotion regulation, and lower unwanted dissociation). This suggests that more specialized trauma units are likely more successful at providing more beneficial care to these patients.

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