The DES-II is the most widely used dissociation screen in clinical research. This is the full 28-item version, scored the way the instrument is actually scored — as a mean from 0 to 100, with the conventional 30-point cut-off and the 8-item DES-T subset.
Dissociation is a disconnection between things that are normally joined up — your memory, your sense of identity, your awareness of your own body, and your sense that the world around you is real. Almost everyone dissociates a little. The question the DES-II answers is how much, and how often.
This is the full 28-item DES-II, the most widely used dissociation screen in clinical research. For each experience, choose roughly how often it happens to you when you are not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Answer Scale — % of the Time
What the 28 Items Cover
A screening tool, not a diagnosis.
Adapted from the published DES-II.
Dissociation is a disconnection between things that are normally joined together: your memory, your sense of who you are, your awareness of your own body, and your sense that the world around you is real. It exists on a spectrum. Driving a familiar route and arriving with no memory of the journey is dissociation. So is losing two hours and finding evidence of things you did in them. Those are not the same experience, and the DES-II is built to tell them apart.
Dissociation most often develops as a protective response. When something is overwhelming and escape is not possible, disconnecting from the experience is one of the few options the nervous system has left. That response can be adaptive at the time and then persist long after the danger has passed, switching on during stress that no longer warrants it.
This matters clinically for a specific reason: dissociation makes trauma harder to treat. A person who disconnects when distress rises cannot process a traumatic memory in the moment, which is why trauma-informed treatment puts grounding and stabilisation before trauma processing. Skipping that sequence tends to make things worse rather than better.
The Dissociative Experiences Scale was developed by Eve Bernstein and Frank Putnam in 1986 and revised as the DES-II by Carlson and Putnam in 1993. It has become the standard measure of dissociation in research, cited in thousands of studies. Its 28 items cover three broad areas:
About this version: the items on this page are paraphrased from the published DES-II. This is a screening tool for education and self-reflection — it is not the licensed clinical instrument, and it does not produce a diagnosis. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call 911.
The DES-II is scored differently from most screening questionnaires, and this trips people up. It is not a point total. Each item asks what percentage of the time an experience happens, and your score is the mean of all 28 answers — so the final number also runs from 0 to 100.
| Mean score | Range | What it typically reflects | Recommended action |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–9 | Low | The range most adults fall into. Everyday absorption and autopilot. | No specific action indicated. |
| 10–19 | Mild | Common alongside anxiety, depression, chronic stress, and sleep deprivation. | Worth mentioning to a provider, especially if it is new. |
| 20–29 | Moderate | Frequently seen in post-traumatic stress disorder. | A trauma-informed assessment is recommended. |
| 30+ | Elevated | At or above the conventional research cut-off for further evaluation. | Structured clinical evaluation recommended. Not a diagnosis. |
One weakness of a simple mean is that the absorption items — getting lost in a film, daydreaming vividly — are common in the general population and can lift a score without indicating anything pathological. In 1996, Waller, Putnam and Carlson identified an eight-item subset, the DES-Taxon (DES-T), that separates pathological dissociation more cleanly. A DES-T mean of 20 or above is the conventional indicator. This assessment reports both numbers.
This is the most important caveat on the page. Elevated DES-II scores appear across several conditions, and distinguishing between them is exactly what a proper clinical evaluation does — and what no online screen can.
| Condition | Why DES-II scores are often elevated |
|---|---|
| Post-traumatic stress disorder | Dissociation is a recognised feature of PTSD, and DSM-5 includes a specific dissociative subtype. Moderate DES-II scores are common. |
| Borderline personality disorder | Stress-related dissociative episodes are one of the diagnostic criteria for BPD, so elevated scores are expected rather than surprising. |
| Depression, anxiety, sleep deprivation | All three reduce attentional control and can raise dissociation scores with no dissociative disorder present. |
| Dissociative disorders (DID, OSDD) | Diagnosed by structured clinical interview — most often the SCID-D — administered by a clinician trained in dissociation. Never by questionnaire. |
If the BPD-versus-DID question is the one you are actually trying to answer, we have a detailed comparison of how clinicians separate the two: BPD vs DID — what actually distinguishes them.
Trauma-Informed Outpatient Care · Port Charlotte & Arcadia, FL
Dissociation is treatable, and the order matters. Our team builds grounding skills before processing trauma — the sequence that makes treatment work rather than backfire.
If you are in crisis, call or text 988 immediately.