Personality disorders Flashcards
What is a personality disorder?
Deeply ingrained and enduring pattern of behavious which deviates markedly from expectations in the individuals culture, pervasive and inflexible with onset in adolescence or early adulthood which is stable over time and leads to distress or impairment
What are some risk factors for personality disorders?
- Low socioeconomic status
- Family history of PD
- Poor parenting and parental deprivation
What is a cluster A personality?
Odd/Eccentric
Paranoid
Schizoid
What is a cluster B personality disorder?
Dramatic / Emotional
Borderline PD
Antisocial PD
Histrionic
What is cluster C personality disorder?
Anxious / fearful
Dependent
Avoidant (anxious)
Anankastic (obsessional)
What is a mneumonic for remembering personality disorders?
WWW
Cluster A = weird
Cluster B = wild
Cluster C = worriers
What is the biopsychosocial managment of PDs?
Bio = atypical antipsychotics (short term for transient psychosis e.g. in paranoid PD), mood stabilizers, antidepressants to control symptoms
Psycho = CBT, psychodynamic therapy (individual / group), dialectical behavioural therapy (emphasis on coping strategies to improve impulse control)
Social = Support groups, substance misuse services, assistance with housing, finance, employment
Risk assessment
What are the features of a schizoid personality?
Few, if any activites, provide pleasure
Emotional coldness
Indifference to praise or criticism
Little interest in having sex with others
Prefers solitude
What are the features of antisocial personality disorder?
Can’t conform to lawful behaviour
More common in men
Deception - lie, use aliases
Impulsiveness
Irritability and agressiveness
Disregard for safety of others
Lack of remorse
How does avoidant personality disorder present?
Avoidance of occupational activities due to threat of criticism
Preoccupied with idea they are being rejected in social situations
Fear of embarrassment
Views self as inferior to others
Social isolation with craving for social contact
What is borderline personality disorder?
Efforts to avoid real abondonment
Unstable relationships which swing between idealization and devaluation
Unstable self image
Impulsivity (e.g. spending, sex, substance abuse)
Recurrent suicidal behaviour
Chronic feelings of emptiness
Difficulty controlling temper
What are the features of dependent personality disorder?
Difficulty making everyday decisions without reassurance from others
Need to others to assume responsibility for major aread of life
Difficulty in expressing disagreement with others due to fear of losing support
Lack of initiative
Urgent search for another relationship as a source of care and support when one ends
Unrealistic feelings that they cannot care for themselves
What are the features of histrionic personality disorders?
- Inappropriate sexual seductiveness
- Need to be centre of attention
- Shallow expression of emotions
- Suggestibility
- Physical appearance used for attention seeking purposes
- Relationships considered to be more initimate than they are
How does narcissistic personality disorder present?
Grandiose sense of self importance
Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success
Sense of entitlement
Taking advantage of others
Lack of empathy
Excessive need for admiration
Chronic envy
Arrogant attitude
What are the features of paranoid personality disorder?
Hypersensitivity and unforgiving attitude when insulted
Questions loyalty of friends
Reluctance to confide in others
Preoccupation with conspirational beliefs and hidden meaning
