Personality disorders

Question 1

What are personality disorders?

Answer 1

A PD is a long lasting rigid pattern of thought & behaviour that falls outside of the “normal expectations” and so causes harm/distress to the individual or her contacts

BJ

Question 2

What are the criteria that describe personality disorders?

Answer 2

• Markedly disharmonious behaviours & attitudes
• Chronic and pervasive
• Present in a wide range of social situations
• Appear at a young age and carry into adulthood
• Often cause great personal distress
• Often associated with work & social problems

Question 3

What are the 3 groups of personality disorders and what does each group generally describe?

Answer 3

Cluster A, B & C

Cluster A

revolve around a basic mistrust of others - with sufferers tending to withdraw from society

Cluster B

characterised by serious problems of behaviour and impulse control

Cluster C

characterised by a constitutional difficulty in the way anxiety is managed, particularly anxiety relating to ordinary social roles and responsibilities

Question 4

What personality disorders are in Cluster A?

Answer 4

Cluster A - mistrust of others

Paranoid personality disorder

Schizoid personality disorder

Schizotypal personality disorder*

*more a schizophrenic illness than a PD

Question 5

What personality disorders are in Cluster B?

Answer 5

Cluster B - behaviour and impulse control

Borderline personality disorder (BPD)

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)*

Histrionic personality disorder

Narcissistic personality disorder

*aka Dissocial PD, sociopathy

Question 6

What are the Cluster C personality disorders?

Answer 6

Cluster C - anxiety management issues

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Dependant personality disorder

Avoidant personality disorder

Question 7

Describe briefly what each of these Cluster A personality disorders are…

a) Paranoid personality disorder
b) Schizoid personality disorder
c) Schizotypal personality disorder

Answer 7

a) Paranoid personality disorder:

• general suspiciousness, mistrust and unforgiveness of others and their actions
• neutral and friendly actions often percieved as hostile

b) Schizoid personality disorder:

• characterized by withdrawal from affectional, social and other contacts with preference for fantasy, solitary activities, and introspection
• there is a limited capacity to express feelings and to experience pleasure

c) Schizotypal personality disorder (technically not PD):

• incredibly eccentric
• psychotic-like experiences - intuitions, magical thoughts

Question 8

Briefly describe the following cluster B conditions:

a) Narcissistic personality disorder
b) Histrionic personality disorder

(BPD & ASPD covered in a hot minute)

Answer 8

a) Narcissistic personality disorder

• characterised by a very high outward opinion of one’s self and little regard for what matters to others
• usually patients have deep feelings of inadequacy but repress these to a huge extent

b) Histrionic personality disorder

• attention seeking personality - with theatrical and dramatic displays of superficial-seeming emotion
• often little regard for others, unless in the context of furthering their image

Question 9

Briefly describe the following cluster C personality disorders:

a) Obsessive compulsive personality disorder
b) Dependent personality disorder
c) Avoidant personality disorder

Answer 9

a) Obsessive compulsive personality disorder

• aka Anankastic PD
• Preoccupied with orderliness, control & perfectionism to the point of sacrificing flexibility, openness & efficiency
• will often impose this view on others

b) Dependent personality disorder:

• characterised by reliance on others to guide and make decisions for them to follow
• leads them to submissive, clingy behaviour and a fear of seperation

c) Avoidant personality disorder:

• characterised by feelings of anxiety, apprehension, insecurity and inferiority
• marked social withdrawel and terrible response to negative evaluation

Question 10

What is Borderline personality disorder?

Answer 10

Characterised by instability of relationships and excessively negative emotional reactions when these relationships are strained

Patients with BPD often feelings of emptiness and fear towards abandonment

A simple way to think of it is just very rapid overattachment to friends and strong, impulsive emotional reactions when things go wrong

Question 11

What at ASPD?

Answer 11

Anti-social personality disorder

(aka Dissocial PD, with sociopath and psychopath being used to describe certain severities of it - kind of)

Personality disorder characterized by disregard for social obligations, and callous unconcern for the feelings of others

Question 12

How are personality disorders treated generally?

Answer 12

It’s not a mental illness as such. It’s a person with an extreme personality who needs help integrating into society, hence it’s psychological therapies not medicines.

Although they tend to suffer from higher rates of substance abuse, suicide and other mental illnesses which can be handled as per.

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Question 13

How is borderline personality disorder treated?

Answer 13

Mentalization-based treatment

work on improving capacity to keep healthy reflective function in times of distress

Dialectical behaviour therapy

improving skills for distress tolerance and helping make emotions more predictable

Psychodynamic psychosocial therapy