↑ "Dissociative identity disorder: An empirical overview" (PDF). Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 48 (5): 402–417. 2014. doi:10.1177/0004867414527523. ISSN1440-1614. PMID24788904. DID treatment outcome has been systematically studied for three decades via case studies, case series, cost-efficacy studies, and naturalistic outcome studies with follow-ups as long as 10 years (e.g. Coons and Bowman, 2001 ... Research indicates that therapy utilising a phasic trauma treatment model consistent with expert consensus guidelines is beneficial to DID individuals (Brand et al., 2009c; International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation... Treatment was associated with reductions in diagnoses of comorbid axis I and II disorders, suicidality and substance abuse; improvements were maintained at two-year followup (Brand et al., 2009c; ... The phasic model of DID treatment involves patients working towards establishing safety and stability in Stage 1. Some DID patients may lack interest in, and/or the psychological or practical resources for, moving beyond Stage 1. The consistency between these experts' recommendations, those described in the ISSTD Treatment Guidelines (2011), and the interventions documented in the Treatment of Patients with Dissociative Disorders (TOP DD) study (Brand et al., 2009b) suggest that a standard of care for the treatment of DID is emerging... The longitudinal international TOP DD study ... prospectively assessed treatment response from 230 DID patients and their therapists from 19 countries, across four data collection points over 30 months (Brand et al., 2009c, 2013). Overtime, patients showed statistically significant reductions in dissociation, PTSD, distress, depression, hospitalisations, suicide attempts, self-harm, dangerous behaviours, drug use and physical pain, as well as higher Global Assessment of Functioning scores (Brand et al., 2013).Even participants with the highest levels of dissociation and the most severe depression showed improvement over time (Engelberg and Brand, 2012; Stadnik and Brand, 2013)... Only 1.1% of patients showed worsening over more than one data collection point, a rate that compares favourably to the 5-10% of general patients who show worsening symptoms during treatment (Hansen et al., 2002). The consistency of statistical improvement across a range of symptoms and adaptive functioning strongly suggests that treatment contributed to improvements.
