Dissociative Identity Disorder - Epidemiology

Epidemiology

There is little systematic data on the prevalence of DID. It occurs more commonly in young adults and declines with age. Reported rates in the community vary from 1% to 3% with higher rates among psychiatric patients. It is 5 to 9 times more common in females than males during young adulthood, though this may be due to selection bias as males who could be diagnosed with DID may end up in the criminal justice system rather than hospitals. In children rates among females and males are approximately the same (5:4). DID diagnoses are extremely rare in children; much of the research on childhood DID occurred in the 1980s and 1990s and does not address ongoing controversies surrounding the diagnosis.

Though the condition has been described in non-English speaking nations and non-Western cultures, these reports all occur in English-language journals authored by international researchers who cite Western scientific literature and are therefore not isolated from Western influences.