Personality Disorders Flashcards
When is the onset for personality disorders?
adolescence or early adulthood
Do personality disorders tend to be stable over time?
yes
Why might there be dilemmas in making distinctions between the personality disorders and other diagnoses?
High rate of comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders
How are the Three clusters of personality disorders grouped?
according to common symptomatology
What is Cluster A?
- Paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders
- characterized by odd or peculiar behavior
What is Cluster B?
- Antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders
- present with flamboyant or dramatic behavior
What is Cluster C?
- Avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive personality disorders
- characterized primarily by anxiety or fear
Etiology of personality disorders is a combination of what?
- Genetic factors affecting serotonin system and stress reactions
- Deficits in function of the prefrontal cortex & structures related to emotion and impulse control
- Structural and functional deficits especially in limbic and paralimbic brain areas, and the cognitive-executive brain regions
- Parental influences—parents with anhedonia more likely to have children with Personality disorders
- Childhood trauma; and adverse experiences in adolescence
- Exaggerated defense mechanisms
- Avoidant, borderline, histrionic, paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal PD strongly correlated with comorbid depression
- Comorbidity: major depression, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, worse outcome
Which is the most severe personality disorder cluster and how are these people perceived?
A-most resistant to treatment
perceived as self-centered, negatively affecting their social relationships
What do individuals with paranoid personality disorders experience?
- sense of being threatened or persecuted
- Others are suspected of intent to harm the individual
- Jealousy and suspicion characterize most relationships
- Individual is isolated, few friends/close relationships
- Argumentative and withdrawn
- Hypercritical of others, respond poorly to any criticism
What is paranoid personality disorder thought to be a milder manifestation of?
characteristics of paranoid schizophrenia
Characteristics of Schizoid Personality Disorder?
- Detachment from social relationships
- Limited expression of emotions in interpersonal relationships
- Little interest in sexual experiences
- Lack of pleasure in activities
- Emotional coldness, detachment or flattened affect
What may Schizoid Personality Disorder be related to?
- May be a spectrum disorder with schizophrenia
- May be related to early attachment difficulties
What is Schizotypal Personality Disorder defined by?
- Schizoid plus the following distorted thinking and behavior:
- Fear & anxiety with relationship
- Cognitive distortions, eccentric behavior, peculiar perceptual experiences, odd thinking and speech, paranoia
- Flat affect; social isolation
- Psychological defense mechanisms associated with schizotypal personality disorder include passive-aggression, devaluation, rationalization, isolation, splitting
What is Cluster B of personality disorders characterized by?
- emotional instability
- disruptive and erratic interpersonal relationships
- restricted affect
- lack of empathy and insight