Patients report feeling detached from their mental processes or body, as if they are external observers. May occur in times of traumatic events, e.g. assault victims, self mutilation. As a pure syndrome it is twice as common in men than women and rarely occurs in people over 40 years old. Depersonalisation disorder Emotions, bodily parts, sensations, are all disturbed.
Patients often fear that they are going insane.
Symptoms often begin abruptly. Patients are often refractory to treatment. One can treat primary mental disorders if depersonalisation is part of another disorder. If the disorder has followed a trauma then recovery of the traumatic memories and cathartic discharge of them may help resolve the depersonalisation.