Stress, Dissociation and Schizophrenia

Abstract

Recent findings indicate that binding and synchronization of distributed activities are crucial for the mechanism of consciousness and there is increased evidence that disrupted feature binding produces disintegration of consciousness in schizophrenia. These data suggest that the disrupted binding and disintegration of consciousness could be related to dissociation, which is historically linked to Bleuler's concept of splitting in schizophrenia. Main topic of this chapter is influence of stress on brain structures, dissociation of consciousness and increased sensitivity to stressors. Stress induced sensitization likely may influence limbic irritability and epileptic-like activity through changes in brain synchronization and complexity that affect binding, and other mechanisms of consciousness. These changes in brain dynamics may manifest in the form of cognitive, affective and memory symptoms that are similar to psychopathological symptoms, which occur in temporal lobe seizures but in non-epileptic conditions. These findings have also practical implications for pharmacological treatment because several patients with schizophrenia and also other patients who experienced extreme stress could be identified for anticonvulsant treatment.