Personality disorders

Question 1

Personality traits

Answer 1

Enduring patterns of perceiving, thinking about and relating to both self and the environment, exhibited in a wide range of social and personal contexts

Question 2

Personality disorder

Answer 2

When an individual has personality traits that are persistently inflexible and maladaptive, stable over time and which cause significant personal distress or functional impairment

Question 3

Acquired personality disorder

Answer 3

The disorder clearly develops after, and is directly related to, a recognisable ‘insult’

Question 4

Organic personality disorder

Answer 4

An acquired personality disorder due to some form of brain damage or disease

Question 5

Specific personality disorder

Answer 5

A personality disorder where it is difficult to find a direct causal relationships between personality traits and any one specific insult, although genetic and environmental factors have been implicated

Usually has onset in adolescence or early adulthood, and any change in symptoms tends to occur gradually over long periods of time

Question 6

Cluster A

Answer 6

Odd or eccentric people - includes paranoid, schizoid and schizotypal personality disorders

Differentiated from psychotic disorders by the absence of true delusions or hallucinations

Question 7

Cluster B

Answer 7

Dramatic, emotional or erratic people - includes borderline, antisocial (dissocial), histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders

Question 8

Cluster C

Answer 8

Anxious or fearful people - includes avoidant, dependent and anankastic (obsessive-compulsive) personality disorders

Question 9

Paranoid personality disorder

Answer 9

Suspects others are exploiting, harming or deceiving them; doubts about spouse’s fidelity; bears grudges; tenacious sense of personal rights; litigious

Question 10

Schizoid personality disorder

Answer 10

Emotional coldness; neither enjoys nor desires close or sexual relationships; prefers solitary activities; takes pleasure in few activities; indifferent to praise or criticism

Question 11

Schizotypal personality disorder

Answer 11

Eccentric behaviour; odd beliefs or magical thinking; unusual perceptual experiences (e.g. ‘sensing’ another’s presence); ideas of reference; suspicious or paranoid ideas; vague or circumstantial thinking; social withdrawal

Question 12

Borderline (emotionally unstable) personality disorder

Answer 12

Unstable, intense relationships (fluctuating between extremes of idealization and devaluation); unstable self-image; impulsivity (sex, binge eating, substance abuse, spending money); chronic feelings of emptiness; repetitive suicidal or self-harm behaviour; fluctuations in mood; frantic efforts to avoid (real or imagined) abandonment; transient paranoid ideation; pseudohallucinations; dissociation

Question 13

Antisocial (dissocial) personality disorder

Answer 13

Repeated unlawful or aggressive behaviour; deceitfulness; lying; reckless irresponsibility; lack of remorse or incapacity to experience guilt; often have conduct disorder in childhood

Question 14

Histrionic personality disorder

Answer 14

Dramatic, exaggerated expressions of emotion; attention seeking; seductive behaviour; labile shallow emotions

Question 15

Narcissistic personality disorder

Answer 15

Grandiose sense of self-importance, need for admiration

Question 16

Dependent personality disorder

Answer 16

Excessive need to be cared for; submissive, clinging behaviour; needs others to assume responsibility for major life areas; fear of separation

Question 17

Avoidant (anxious) personality disorder

Answer 17

Hypersensitivity to critical remarks or rejection; inhibited in social situations; fears of inadequacy

Question 18

Obsessive-Compulsive (anankastic) personality disorder

Answer 18

Preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism and control; devoted to work at expense of leisure; pedantic, rigid and stubborn; overly cautious