LEVEL OF ANXIETY AND DISSOCIATION IN PATIENTS WITH CONVERSION AND DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS

State Trait Anxiety Inventory and Questionnaire of Experiences of Dissociation were administered to an unbiased sample of sixty patients, including twenty seven patients with dissociative disorder, twenty four with conversion disorder and nine with both these diagnoses, using DSM III criteria. The differences in anxiety scores and level of dissociation among the three diagnostic groups were not statistically significant. The finding that a substantial proportion (15%) of patients had both diagnoses and the lack of difference in levels of anxiety and dissociation in the three groups suggests that these two diagnoses are closely related.