Multiple personality disorder (MPD) was once thought to be rare, but there is increasing evidence that it is relatively common. In a period of a year the author had 73 inpatient admissions under his care, of which 8 were for MPD. Three of the MPD admissions were for previously undiagnosed cases in an unselected general adult population. Thus 4.4% of the author's inpatients, once MPD patients diagnosed prior to admission are excluded, had MPD. The implications of this finding are discussed. The diagnosis and inpatient treatment of MPD are reviewed.
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