Personality Disorders

Question 1

What is the classification for Cluster A personality disorders?

Answer 1

Including paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal PDs, which may manifest in cognitive distortions and an interpersonal style that is odd, eccentric, or detached

Question 2

What is the classification for Cluster B personality disorders?

Answer 2

Consisting of antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic PDs, which often involve behaviour that appears dramatic, erratic, impulsive, aggressive, or affectively dysregulated

Question 3

What is the classification for Cluster C personality disorder?

Answer 3

Includes avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive PDs that tend to involve fear, anxiety, apprehension, or perceived avoidance of harm

Question 4

What is the general classification criteria for personality disorders?

Answer 4

Markedly disharmonious attitudes and behaviour, involving several areas of functioning
Abnormal behaviour is enduring, of long standing and not limited to episodes of mental illness.
Abnormal behaviour is pervasive and maladaptive to a broad range of personal and social situations
The manifestations appear during childhood or adolescence and continue into adulthood.
The disorder leads to considerable personal distress but not always evident.
Often but not always associated with significant problems in social and occupational performance.

Question 5

What are the symptoms of paranoid personality disorder?

Answer 5

Excessive sensitiveness to setbacks and rebuffs.
Bears grudges persistently
Suspicious, misconstrues actions as hostile
Combative, tenacious sense of personal rights
Suspicious regarding fidelity of partner
Excessive self importance
Conspiratorial explanations of events

Question 6

What are the symptoms of schizoid personality disorder?

Answer 6

Social detachment
Emotional coldness, detachment or flattened affect
Finds few activities pleasurable
Limited capacity to express feelings
Apparent indifference to praise or criticism.
Little interest in sexual experiences with another person
Preoccupation with fantasy and introspection (eccentricity)
Lack of desire for close friends or confiding relationships

Question 7

What are the symptoms of dissocial (antisocial) personality disorder?

Answer 7

Callous unconcern for feelings of others
Gross and persisitent irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules and obligations
Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
Low tolerance to frustration
Low threshold for violence and aggression.
Incapacity to experience guilt or to profit from experience, especially punishment
Blames others

Question 8

What is psychopathy?

Answer 8

Severe form of antisocial personality disorder. Characterised by antisocial behaviour, callous disregard and lack of empathy

Question 9

What are the 2 types of emotionally unstable (borderline) personality disorder?

Answer 9

Impulsive type

Borderline type

Question 10

What are the features of impulsive type emotionally unstable personality disorder?

Answer 10

Emotional instability and lack of control

Outbursts of violence and threatening behaviour are common especially in response to criticism

Question 11

What are the features of borderline type emotionally unstable personality disorder?

Answer 11

Emotional instability
Self image, aims and internal preferences are often unclear or disturbed
Chronic feelings of emptiness
Intense unstable relationships causing repeated emotional crises
Associated excessive efforts to avoid abandonment
Suicidal threats or self harm

Question 12

What are the symptoms of histrionic personality type disorder?

Answer 12

Self dramatisation, theatricality,
Suggestibility
Shallow and labile affect
Seeks excitement, centre of attention
Inappropriate seductiveness
Over concern with physical attractiveness

Question 13

What are the features of anankastic (obsessive-compulsive) personality disorder?

Answer 13

Preoccupation with details, rules, lists, order, organisation and schedule.
Perfectionism interferes with task completion
Conscientiousness, scrupulousness, undue preoccupation with productivity to exclusion of pleasure and relationships
Pedantic, rigid and stubborn
Insists others submit to their way of doing things, reluctant to allow others to do things
Intrusion of unwelcome, insistent thoughts or impulses

Question 14

What are the symptoms of anxious (avoidant) personality disorder?

Answer 14

Persistent, pervasive tensions and apprehension
Believe they are socially inept, unappealing or inferior to others
Preoccupation with being criticised or rejected in social situations
Unwillingness to become involved unless certain of being liked
Restriction in lifestyle because of need for security
Avoidance of activities involving interpersonal contact because of fear of criticism, disapproval or rejection

Question 15

What are the symptoms of dependent personality disorder?

Answer 15

Allows others to make important life decisions
Subordination of own needs to those of others on whom they are dependent
Unwillingness to make demand on people on whom they are dependent
Fear of being abandoned
Uncomfortable or helpless when alone,
Fear inability to care for themselves
Unable to make decisions without excessive advice from others

Question 16

What is mentalisation based therapy (MBT)?

Answer 16

Process by which we make sense of each other and ourselves, implicitly and explicitly, in terms of subjective states and intentional varied mental processes.