Cloudfindings

A Dynorphin Hypothesis for Dissociative Identity Disorder Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a condition that is not well understood, is under-researched, and is controversial. Research and hypotheses on the neurobiology of DID is somewhat limited, and there is little direct empirical evidence that DID does or doesn’t involve alterations to different neurotransmitter systems. Using a comparative psychopharmacological approach, I put forth a novel hypothesis for the etiology of DID involving the k-Opioid system and the endogenous k-Opioid receptor agonist dynorphin, which can explain the phenomenon of alters, the comorbidity of DID with other mental disorders, and characteristics of DID which have not been adequately accounted for by previous models, such as the high frequency of psychotic symptoms in DID. Alters can be understood as an extreme form of dissociation involving identity replacement which exists on a continuum with milder dissociation that does not involve identity rep...