Personality Disorders are Dead, Long Live the Interpersonal Disorders

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan G.C. Wright ◽  
Whitney R. Ringwald

Widiger and Hines raise a number of significant concerns with the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD). This places the major class of psychiatric difficulties represented by the personality disorders in a precarious position because the model used in prior editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and currently reprinted in Section II is moribund if not dead, and with the AMPD’s significant problems their future is unclear. Although we agree that Widiger and Hines’ criticisms have merit, they are not the whole picture. We review additional relevant research that supports the contention that what differentiates personality disorders from other psychopathology is the self and interpersonal dysfunction, as Criterion A of the AMPD currently states. We emphasize the importance of drawing a distinction between the conceptual model and its operationalization. We argue that paradoxically, to save personality disorders we need to do away with them and replace them with the “interpersonal disorders”. There is strong theory, empirical research, and ethical arguments in favor of this conceptual reframing.

2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 425-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Bach ◽  
Martin Sellbom ◽  
Mathias Skjernov ◽  
Erik Simonsen

Objective: The five personality disorder trait domains in the proposed International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition are comparable in terms of Negative Affectivity, Detachment, Antagonism/Dissociality and Disinhibition. However, the International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition model includes a separate domain of Anankastia, whereas the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition model includes an additional domain of Psychoticism. This study examined associations of International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition trait domains, simultaneously, with categorical personality disorders. Method: Psychiatric outpatients ( N = 226) were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders Interview and the Personality Inventory for DSM-5. International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition trait domain scores were obtained using pertinent scoring algorithms for the Personality Inventory for DSM-5. Associations between categorical personality disorders and trait domains were examined using correlation and multiple regression analyses. Results: Both the International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition domain models showed relevant continuity with categorical personality disorders and captured a substantial amount of their information. As expected, the International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition model was superior in capturing obsessive–compulsive personality disorder, whereas the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition model was superior in capturing schizotypal personality disorder. Conclusion: These preliminary findings suggest that little information is ‘lost’ in a transition to trait domain models and potentially adds to narrowing the gap between Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition and the proposed International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition model. Accordingly, the International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition domain models may be used to delineate one another as well as features of familiar categorical personality disorder types. A preliminary category-to-domain ‘cross walk’ is provided in the article.


1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 316-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Oulis ◽  
L Lykouras ◽  
J Hatzimanolis ◽  
V Tomaras

SummaryWe investigated the overall prevalence and the differential comorbidity of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-III-R personality disorders in 166 remitted or recovered patients with schizophrenic (n = 102) or unipolar mood disorder (n = 64). Over 60% of both patient groups met the DSM-III-R criteria of at least one DSM-III-R personality disorder as assessed by means of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID-II-R), receiving on average 3.1 personality diagnoses. Neither DSM-III-R categories of personality disorders, nor scores on its three clusters A, B and C, nor total score on SCID-II-R differed significantly across the two groups. In conclusion, DSM-III-R personality disorders, although highly prevalent in schizophrenic and unipolar mood disorders, lack any specificity with respect to these categories of mental disorders.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Pallanti ◽  
Leonardo Quercioli ◽  
Adolfo Pazzagli

AbstractThe concept of anxiety as a distinct comorbid disorder in schizophrenia has recently been rediscovered after having been neglected for a long period of time due to both theoretical and clinical approaches adopted from the appearance of the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1950. This rediscovery was accentuated by the fact that the concept of comorbidity in various psychiatric disorders has recently won widespread favor within the scientific community, and that the use of atypical neuroleptic medication to treat patients with schizophrenia has been reported to lead to the emergence of anxiety symptoms. Of the atypical neuroleptic medications used to treat schizophrenia, clozapine has most frequently been reported to induce anxiety symptoms. In this paper, 12 cases of patients with paranoid schizophrenia who developed social phobia during clozapine treatment are reported, and their response to fluoxetine augmentation is assessed. Premorbid personality disorders were also investigated; patients were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R—Patient Version and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders (DSM-III-R=Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition Revised; DSM-IV=Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition). In addition, the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), the Frankfurt Beschwerde Fragebogen (Frankfurt Questionnaire of Complaints), and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale were used to rate clinical symptomatology. All patients were reevaluated after 12 weeks of cotreatment with clozapine and fluoxetine. In 8 (66.6%) of the 12 cases, symptoms responded (≥35% LSAS score reduction) to an adjunctive regimen of fluoxetine. Furthermore, in 7 (58.3%) of the 12 cases, an anxious personality disorder (avoidant=33.3%; dependent=25%) was identified, but no significant differences in the prevalence of comorbid personality disorders emerged in comparison with a group of 16 patients with paranoid schizophrenia treated with clozapine who did not show symptoms of social phobia. The clinical relevance of the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders is discussed in light of a clinical therapeutic approach that overcomes the implicit hierarchy of classification. Considering that the onset of anxiety-spectrum disorders (such as social phobia) can occur during the remission of psychotic symptoms in clozapine-treated patients with schizophrenia, a comprehensive approach to pharmacological therapy for patients with schizophrenia (or, at least for those treated with clozapine) should be adopted.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 23-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Rossi ◽  
Maria Grazia Marinangeli ◽  
Giancarlo Butti ◽  
Artemis Kalyvoka ◽  
Concetta Petruzzi

AbstractThe aim of this study was to examine the pattern of comorbidity among obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) and other personality disorders (PDs) in a sample of 400 psychiatric inpatients. PDs were assessed using the Semistructured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders (SCID-II). Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to determine significant comorbidity among OCPD and other axis II disorders. The most elevated odds ratios were found for the cooccurrence of OCPD with cluster A PDs (the “odd” PDs, or paranoid and schizoid PDs). These results are consistent with those of previous studies showing a higher cooccurrence of OCPD with cluster A than with cluster C (“anxious”) PDs. In light of these observations, issues associated with the nosologic status of OCPD within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders clustering system remain unsettled.


2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
B. Van Houdenhove

SUMMARYChronic pain is a phenomenon with important psychiatric aspects from a diagnostic as well as a therapeutic point of view. The place of chronic pain in the different versions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and the differential-diagnosis are critically discussed. The comorbidity with depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse and personality disorders is extensively treated. Finally, the essential role of the psychiatrist in the multidisciplinary therapeutic approach of these patients is emphasised.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (6) ◽  
pp. 1023-1045 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam P. Natoli

Often believed to have Kraepelinian origins, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—5th Edition (DSM-5) defines personality disorders using a categorical, hierarchical taxonomic system. This system possesses many long-standing problems for clinical practice, including a large assortment of symptom combinations that contribute to problematic heterogeneity and likely impair diagnostic validity. The DSM diagnostic system was at one time heavily influenced by psychoanalytic theory (Shorter 2005). A desire for greater theoretical neutrality then encouraged a shift away from psychoanalytic theory, resulting in the problematic atheoretical model of personality pathology introduced in DSM-III (1980) and still used today. The Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD), introduced in DSM-5 (2013), is an attempt to reconcile many of the categorical model’s issues and directly parallels primary themes that characterize psychoanalytic models of personality. After a review of the historical development of DSM, three current systems for diagnosing personality pathology—the DSM-5’s categorical model (2013), its AMPD (2013), and the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (2nd ed.; Alliance of Psychoanalytic Organizations 2017) are compared. The comparison illustrates how the AMPD brings psychoanalytic theory back into the DSM system and acknowledges the implications of a more psychoanalytic DSM.


1996 ◽  
Vol 168 (S30) ◽  
pp. 7-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Ulrich Wittchen

Comorbidity can be described broadly as the presence of more than one disorder in a person in a defined period of time (Wittchen & Essau, 1993). Stimulated by the introduction of explicit diagnostic criteria and operationalised diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–III; APA, 1980) and the Diagnostic Criteria for Research in ICD–10 (WHO, 1991), numerous studies in the 1980s and early 1990s, have assessed the extent, the nature, and more recently, the implications of comorbidity for a better understanding of mental disorders. Most studies investigated the association of anxiety and mood disorders, but increasingly there are also studies looking into the association of mood disorders with other disorders (such as somatoform and substance use disorders (Wittchen et al, 1993, 1996)) as well as with somatic conditions (axis II) and personality disorders (axis III).


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