DES-B Scoring · Brief Dissociative Experiences Scale (8-Item)

Foundational context

For the full 28-item scale, see the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES).

The DES was created by Bernstein and Putnam (1986) to quantify the frequency of dissociative experiences in clinical and non-clinical populations, and became the most widely used dissociation screening tool in research and clinical practice. Its length (28 items) can be a barrier in high-volume or acute settings.

The DES-B (Dalenberg and Carlson, 2010) is a brief 8-item version. Dalenberg and Carlson modified it for DSM-5, and the American Psychiatric Association offers it as an emerging measure, "Severity of Dissociative Symptoms—Adult", for research and clinical evaluation.

What the DES-B measures

The DES-B measures how often a person has had dissociative experiences in the past 7 days, across domains such as:

• Depersonalization, feeling detached from one's body or sense of self
• Derealization, experiences of unreality or detachment from surroundings
• Amnesia and memory disruptions, doing things one does not remember doing
• Absorption, becoming fully lost in internal experience
• Identity disruptions, acting so differently across situations that it feels like being two different people

The APA version is for adults aged 18 and older.

How to administer the DES-B

• The person rates each of the 8 items for the past 7 days. The APA intends it to be completed once a person has a diagnosis of a dissociative disorder or clinically significant dissociative symptoms, and again before follow-up visits.
• The clinician reviews each item score during the clinical interview and confirms it.
• Encourage the person to answer every item: the total should not be calculated if 3 or more items are blank.
• Repeat at regular intervals as clinically indicated, depending on symptom stability and treatment status.
• Introduce it with non-stigmatizing, trauma-informed framing, and offer support to anyone who becomes distressed or highly dissociated while completing it.

DES-B scoring and interpretation

Each item is rated on a 5-point scale: 0 = not at all, 1 = once or twice, 2 = almost every day, 3 = about once a day, 4 = more than once a day.

1. Raw total: sum the 8 items (range 0–32). Higher scores indicate greater severity of dissociative experiences.
2. Prorating: if 1 or 2 items are blank, multiply the partial raw sum by 8 and divide by the number of items answered (6 or 7), rounding to the nearest whole number. Do not score if 3 or more items are blank.
3. Average total score: divide the raw total by 8 (range 0–4).

The APA reads the average total score as none (0), mild (1), moderate (2), severe (3) or extreme (4). According to the APA, the average total score was found to be reliable, easy to use and clinically useful to clinicians in the DSM-5 Field Trials.

Interpretation notes:

• Consistently high scores on a particular item may point to problem areas that warrant further assessment, treatment and follow-up.
• A high score does not confirm a dissociative disorder; integrate scores with clinical interview findings (for example, the SCID-D).
• Scores can fluctuate with stress, trauma reminders, sleep disturbance or emotional overwhelm.
• Cut-offs published for the 28-item DES (scored 0–100%) do not apply to the DES-B.

Psychometric properties

Published psychometric data for the DES-B are limited. The DES-R/DES-B revisions are described in an APA PsycEXTRA record (Dalenberg et al., 2014), which is not indexed in PubMed. The APA reports that the average total score was reliable, easy to use and clinically useful in the DSM-5 Field Trials, and asks clinicians and researchers to contribute further data on the measure's usefulness. For a dissociation measure with a larger body of published validation research, see the full 28-item DES.

Limitations

• Not a diagnostic tool, and not the sole basis for a clinical diagnosis.
• An APA "emerging measure": offered for further research and clinical evaluation, with limited published validation data.
• Self-report may be limited by insight, shame, normalization of symptoms or emotional numbing.
• Items capture frequency over the past 7 days, not intensity or functional impairment.
• The APA defines anchor points (0–4) for the average total score, not cut-offs between them.
• May be less sensitive for complex dissociation requiring more detailed assessment (e.g., MID, SCID-D).