Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffFeeling of depersonalization may:
- Begin with no apparent trigger
- Start after a life-threatening event, such as an accident or assault
- Be triggered by fear of having another depersonalization experience
With depersonalization disorder, feelings of depersonalization aren't directly caused by drugs, alcohol or a medical condition. However, depersonalization may be triggered by stress or trauma, and it often occurs along with other mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression or schizophrenia. In some cases, it starts suddenly without an apparent cause.
While the exact cause of depersonalization disorder isn't well understood, it appears to be linked to the balance of certain brain chemicals (neurotransmitters).
- Depersonalization.disorder. In: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR. 4th ed. Arlington, Va.: American Psychiatric Association; 2000. http://www.psychiatryonline.com. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Simeon D. Depersonalization disorder: A contemporary overview. CNS Drugs. 2004;18:343.
- Depersonalization disorder. In: Moore DP, et al. Handbook of Medical Psychiatry. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby; 2004. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/147320988-3/0/1243/99.html?tocnode=52436700&fromURL=99.html#4-u1.0-B0-323-02911-6..50099-3_926. Accessed June 11, 2009.
