Is there a sufficient amount of biological aspects to dissociative Identity Disorder to write a paper on it?

Question

I'm trying to choose a topic for a biology paper. Mind you I'm in the 9th grade, so the paper is about 2000 words. I wanted to know if there is enough info on the biological aspects to DID for me to be able to write the paper on it.

My other two alternative topics are either Forensics or Schizophrenia.

Answer 1

I'd choose another subject.



DID is not hereditary. It is fron early child abuse and neglect. There are no direct genetics involved (there are pre-disposition to dissociation and high hypnotic abilities, but that would takes years to understand).



There have been some studies showing that there are abnormalities in the lower limbic system (which controls the fight or flight response) but there have been very few and you will have to wade through a ton of misinformation. Plus I believe that is more of a chronic PTSD issue anyway. There have been some eeg studies as well, but only a few and not too conclusive. I think something of this sort could make a great graduate level thesis, but would be difficult to do as a 9th grader and in 2000 words.



Also, I don't believe watching a movie with actors pretending to have DID would count for biology research. Switching doesn't happen like that in real life, only in Hollywood.

Answer 2

I think you should go with one of your alternate topics. I have DID, and there are a lot of really sensational things written out there (like folks with DID can mess up electrical equipment with their mere prescence, or different alters have different allergies etc) but most of it is either flat out untrue, or taken from exceptional cases, not the norm. DID is not biological in origin, its caused by severe trauma early in childhood. You can't just be born with it. And in my experience talking with other multiples, cases in which biological characteristics diferes between alters are extremely rare. Others can be explained psycholigically- differences in blood pressure for instance- naturally, a calm alter would have lower blood pressure than a nervous one- thats a correlation of the persons mental state, not that the alter has different abilities. There are some studies about biological readings and DID (such as those cited by wikipedia) but they are difficult to find. It isn't something that would be easy to research. Given its a ninth grade paper, and not a doctoral thesis, I would pick something with a bigger information base. -Neb

Answer 3

Definitely! I mean, if your goal is to simply get the assignment done and keep moving then I'd go with schizophrenia. But, there's definitely enough information out there on Dissociative Identity Disorder out there, I'd start by looking on Google Scholar, which searches the net for journal articles. If you find those to be too wordy, then look at WebMD or ask your teacher for advice on where to get information. Teachers are usually very willing to help students that actually take an interest in a challenging topic. Good luck!

Answer 4

based on this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder#Physiological_findings



Physiological findings



Reviews of the literature have discussed the findings of various psychophysiologic investigations of DID.[15][16] Many of the investigations include testing and observation in the one person but with different alters. Different alter states have shown distinct physiological markers[17] and some EEG studies have shown distinct differences between alters in some subjects,[18][19] while other subjects' patterns were consistent across alters.[20] Another study concluded that the differences involved intensity of concentration, mood changes, degree of muscle tension, and duration of recording, rather than some inherent difference between the brains of persons with multiple personalities and those of persons with single personalities.[21] Brain imaging studies have corroborated the transitions of identity in some DID sufferers.[22] One EEG study comparing DID with hysteria showed differences between the two diagnoses.[23] A postulated link between epilepsy and DID has been disputed by a number of authors.[24][25] Some brain imaging studies have shown differing cerebral blood flow with different alters,[26][27][28] and distinct differences overall between subjects with DID and a healthy control group.[29] A different imaging study showed that findings of smaller hippocampal volumes in patients with a history of exposure to traumatic stress and an accompanying stress-related psychiatric disorder were also demonstrated in DID.[30] This study also found smaller amygdala volumes. Studies have demonstrated various changes in visual parameters between alters.[31][32][33] One twin study showed hereditable factors were present in DID.[34}







so i think there is enough material out there.



if you watch the movie, the 3 faces of eve, you will see that the different eves hav different allergies, for instance.

Answer 5

DID is more of a psychology thing...i think you're better off talking about forensics