Dell's findings about less publicized aspects of the disorder, and it can distinguish adults with DID from adults with OSDD and nonclinical adults.

The MID's understanding of dissociative identity disorder is partially based off of Paul F. Its items measure the frequency of experiences ranging from 0 (never) to 10 (always) when not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and no timeframe is given in order to prevent rare occurrences such as amnesia from being missed. It assesses 14 major facets of pathological dissociation and uses 23 scales to diagnose dissociative disorders.

The Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation is a self-administered multiscale instrument that contains 218 items, 168 of which are for dissociation and 50 of which are for validity. Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID) In 1996, a meta-analysis of existing studies showed that the DES has excellent reliability but only decent discriminate validity (Van Ijzendoorn & Schuengel, 1996) 1. The DES has been used in hundreds of studies on dissociation. Instead, it can be used to indicate that someone might have a dissociative disorder so that more thorough investigation can be undergone. This scale is a screening tool and is not meant to be used to diagnose. Experiences under the influence of alcohol or drugs do not count. The dissociative experiences scale is a questionnaire that has 28 questions about how frequently (ranging from 0-100% by intervals of 10%) different dissociative symptoms are experienced during daily life. Other instruments that will not be discussed here include the following: the Child/Adolescent and the Child Dissociative Checklists (screening tools for children and adolescents) the Clinician Administered Dissociative States Scale (used to measure dissociative states at discrete points in time) and the Questionnaire of Experiences of Dissociation (QED), Dissociation Questionnaire (DIS-Q), Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire (SDQ-20), Multiscale Dissociation Inventory (MDI), and the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (ADES) (all of which are self report measures of dissociation ).

Those who are not professionals may not have the information necessary to make an accurate diagnosis, and even professionals are biased when it comes to themselves. Self diagnosis is not advised because DID can easily be confused with similar conditions, especially borderline personality disorder. The Dissociative Experiences Scale is a screening tool for dissociative disorders but should not be used to diagnose. Dissociative identity disorder (DID) can be diagnosed using clinical observation, the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation, the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule, or the Structured Clinical Interview for Dissociative Disorders, the last of which is considered the 'gold-star' for diagnosis.

Structured clinical interview scid