Dr. Do Minh Loan, Head of the Department of Adolescent Health (National Children’s Hospital), said that dissociative disorder is a disorder in which there is a mismatch between physical symptoms and damage to the muscles in the body. This is a disease related to the psychological trauma and personality of the patient, not a pretending behavior. Symptoms of the disease such as fainting, convulsions, muscle weakness, etc. can cause significant discomfort for children.
The symptoms of dissociative disorders are very diverse, they can be physical symptoms, mental-neurological symptoms and can resemble many different diseases. The symptoms will depend on the clinical form of dissociative disorders with one of the following manifestations:
Dissociative seizures: Sudden, unexpected stiffening movements, very similar to epileptic seizures but without loss of consciousness during the seizure.
Dissociative movement disorder: The child loses the ability to move all or part of one/more limbs.
Dissociative amnesia: Sudden, partial amnesia.
Dissociative syncope: Children often faint for a period of time when there is an impact of psychological trauma.
Dissociative stupor: The patient becomes immobile even with external stimulation, remains in the same position for a long time, does not speak or move.
Disorders of possession and trance.
Numbness and dissociative loss of sensation: The most common are pain and loss of sensation.
In fact, there have been cases where students did not eat but only drank water, always dancing and laughing like in Son La province a few years ago. The phenomenon that has been seen before is that when one student faints, the whole group faints, like the cases of female students fainting at the same time that happened in Phu Yen, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Vinh Long, An Giang...
According to Dr. Do Minh Loan, children at risk of dissociative disorders include children with weak personalities: Anxious, easily shaken, often avoidant or self-inhibited, lacking self-control, fond of pampering, poor tolerance for hardship and difficulty; Life traumas: Loss of loved ones, discrimination from friends, etc.
Treatment of dissociative disorders is very important, helping children to integrate into the community early, improve the quality of life and social relationships. In addition, it also helps children practice the ability to adapt and cope with stressful factors in life. Therefore, when detecting children with the above symptoms of dissociative disorders, parents need to take their children to specialized medical facilities for timely examination and treatment. Symptoms can subside quickly after only a few weeks to a few months, but can also recur if preventive measures and care are not taken.
