Personality Disorders Flashcards
Define personality disorders?
Enduring patterns of behaviour that manifest themselves as inflexible responses to a broad range of personal and social situations
For someone to have a personality disorders the personality traits must be ______ and must cause _________
pervasive
ie present in all scenarios not just in certain situations
must cause personal distress and/ or have an adverse impact on the social environment
Describe when personality disorders arise?
They are developmental conditions that appear in childhood or adolescence and continue into adult life
Describe personality disorders and other adult mental disorders?
Personality disorders cannot be explained as a manifestation or consequence of other adult mental disorders as then they are not personality disorders!
However personality disorders are more common in those with other mental health disorders.
Cluster A personality disorders are known as the _______
odd and eccentric
Cluster B personality disorders are known as the ______
dramatic and emotional
Cluster C personality disorders are known as ______
anxious and avoidant
List the cluster A personality disorders?
paranoid
schizoid
schizotypal
List the cluster B personality disorders?
dissocial emotionally unstable impulsive emotionally unstable borderline histrionic narcissistic
List the cluster C personality disorders?
anankastic
anxious
dependent
Which personality disorder has an overlap with autism symptoms?
schizoid
Overview of treatment of PDs?
generally there is not good evidence to guide treatment for most PD
treatment of co-morbidities e.g. depression and anxiety is effective
in general pharmacological treatment is not recommended by NICE but can be used for individual symptoms
When may antipsychotics be used in PD?
to help with suspiciousness of cluster A, may also help with borderline if paranoid or hearing voices
e.g. quetiapine, olanzapine, haloperidol
When may antidepressants be used in PD?
to help with mood and emotional difficulties in cluster B PDs
to reduce anxiety in cluster C
What can SSRIs help with in PD?
help people be less impulsive and aggressive in borderline and dissocial disorders
When may mood stabilisers be used in PD?
to help with unstable mood and impulsivity that people with emotionally unstable borderline may experience e.g. lamotrigine
When may benzodiazepams and hypnotics be used in PD?
used short term as sedatives as part of a larger care plan during a crisis
Paranoid Personality Disorder Criteria? (7 points total)
4 of:
• Excessive sensitivity to setbacks
• Tendency to bear grudges
• Suspiciousness and tendency to misconstrue the neutral/ friendly actions of others as hostile/ contemptuous
• A combative and tenacious sense of personal rights out of keeping with the actual situation
• Recurrent suspicions without justification regarding sexual fidelity of partner
• Persistent self-referential attitude, associated particularly with excessive self-importance
• Preoccupation with unsubstantiated “conspiratorial” explanations of events in the world at large
Schizoid Personality Disorder Criteria? (9 points total)
4 of:
• Few, if any activities provide pleasure
• Emotional coldness, detachment, or flattened affectivity
• Limited capacity to express warm feelings for others as well as anger
• Indifferent to either praise or criticism of others
• Little interest in having sexual experiences with another person
• Almost always chooses solitary activities
• Excessive preoccupation with fantasy/ introspection
• Neither desires nor has any close friends or confiding relationships (or only one)
Marked insensitivity to prevailing social norms/ conventions
Schizotypal Personality Disorder Criteria? (9 points total)
5 or more of:
• Ideas of reference (excluding delusions of reference)
• Odd beliefs or magical thinking, inconsistent with subcultural norms (e.g. superstitious, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy or “sixth sense”)
• Unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions
• Odd thinking and speech (e.g. vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, elaborate or stereotyped)
• Suspicious or paranoid ideation
• Inappropriate or constricted affect
• Behaviour or appearance that is off, eccentric or peculiar
• Lack of close friends or confidants other than first degree relatives
• Excessive social anxiety that does not diminish with familiarity and tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgements about self
Dissocial Personality Disorder Criteria? (6 points total)
3 of:
• Callous unconcern for feelings of others
• Irresponsible and disregard for social norms/rules/ obligations
• Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though no difficulty in establishing them
• Very low tolerance to frustration and low threshold for aggression/ violence
• Incapacity to experience guilt, or to profit from adverse experience, particulalry punishment
Marked proneness to blame others
Histrionic Personality Disorder Criteria? (6 points total)
4 of:
• Self dramatization, theatricality, or exaggerated expression of emotions
• Suggestible
• Shallow/ labile affectivity
• Continually seeks excitement and activities in which the subject is the centre of attention
• Inappropriately seductive in appearance or behaviour
Overly concerned with physical attractiveness
Emotionally unstable impulsive personality disorder criteria? (5 points total)
3 of:
• Tendency to act unexpectedly, without consideration of consequences
• Quarrelsome behaviour and conflicts with others, especially when impulsive acts are thwarted/criticized
• Liability to outbursts of anger or violence
• Difficult in maintaining any course of action that offers no immediate reward
• Unstable mood
Emotionally unstable borderline personality disorder criteria? (5 points total)
Need to have 2 from the impulsive subtype category plus 2 of:
• Disturbances in and uncertainty about self-image aims, and internal preferences (including sexual)
• Intense and unstable relationships, often leading to emotional crises (form relationships quickly but relationships also breakdown of relationships)
• Excessive efforts to avoid abandonment
• Recurrent threats or acts of self harm
• Chronic feelings of emptiness
Narcissistic PD criteria? (9 points total)
5 of:
• A grandiose logic of self importance
• A fixation with fantasies of infinite success, control, brilliance, beauty or idyllic love
• A credence that he or she is extraordinary and exceptional and can only be understood by, or should connect with, other extraordinary or important people or institutions
• A desire for unwarranted admiration
• A sense of entitlement
• Interpersonally oppressive behaviour (oppressive behaviour towards others)
• No form of empathy
• Resentment of others or a conviction that others are resentful of him or her
A display of egotistical and conceited behaviours or attitudes
Anankastic PD criteria? (8 points total)
4 of:
• Excessive doubt and caution
• Preoccupation with details, rules, lists, order, organisation or schedule
• Perfectionism that interferes with task completion
• Excessive conscientiousness
• Undue preoccupation with productivity to the exclusion of pleasure/ interpersonal relationships
• Pedantic, excessive adherence to social conventions
• Rigidity and stubbornness
Unreasonable insistence that other submit exactly to his or her way of doing things, or unreasonable reluctance to allow others to do things
Anxious PD criteria? (6 points total)
4 of:
• Persistent pervasive feelings of tension/ apprehension
• Belief that oneself is socially inept/ inferior to others
• Excessive preoccupation about being criticized/ rejected in social situations
• Unwillingness to get involved with people unless certain of being liked
• Restrictions in lifestyle because of need of security
Avoidance of social or occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal contact, because of fear of criticism, disapproval or rejection
Dependent PD criteria? (6 points total)
4 of:
• Encouraging or allowing others to make most of one’s important life decisions
• Subordination of one’s own needs to those of others on whom one is dependent, and undue compliance with their wishes
• Unwillingness to make even reasonable demands on the people one depends on
• Feeling uncomfortable or helpless when alone because of exaggerated fears of inability to care for oneself
• Preoccupation with fears of being left to take care of oneself
Limited capacity to make everyday decisions without an excessive amount of advice/ reassurance
