Aetiology of PD

Question 1

What is a personality disorder?

Answer 1

Inflexible pattern of inner experiences and outward behaviour

Question 2

What are the features of personality disorders?

Answer 2

> Pattern seen in most interactions
> Continues for years
> Cause psychological pain
> Social or occupational difficulties
> May also bring pain to others

Question 3

When are Personality Disorders usually diagnosed?

Answer 3

> Adolescence and early adulthood

> Sufferers are not usually aware

Question 4

What is the frequency of personality disorders?

Answer 4

9-13%

Question 5

What are the problems with diagnosing personality disorders?

Answer 5

> Overlap
Lack of agreement between clinicians and diagnosticians on categories, validity and reliability
Over-diagnosis is easy

Question 6

What are the clusters of personality disorder?

Answer 6

> A - Eccentric and socially distant
B - Flamboyant and emotionally unstable
C - Anxious

Question 7

What are cluster A personality disorders?

Answer 7

> Paranoid
Schizotypal
Schizoid

Question 8

What are cluster B personality disorders?

Answer 8

> Anti-social
Borderline
Histrionic
Narcissistic

Question 9

What are cluster C personality disorders?

Answer 9

> Avoidant
Dependant
Obsessive-Compulsive

Question 10

What are the features of cluster A personality disorders?

Answer 10

> Behaviour similar to, but not as extensive as, schizophrenia
Suspiciousness, social withdrawal, altered perception and reasoning
Isolating

Question 11

What are the features of cluster B personality disorders?

Answer 11

> Exaggerated or dramatic behaviour

> Attention-seeking, self-centred, demanding

Question 12

What are the features of cluster C personality disorders?

Answer 12

> Characterised by anxiety and fear

> Low self-confidence, risk of depression, anxiety and eating disorders

Question 13

What are the features of antisocial personality disorder?

Answer 13

> Persistently disregard and violate others’ rights
Comorbid with drug addiction
Pattern of misbehaviour typically begins before 15

Question 14

What are the features of histrionic personality disorder?

Answer 14

> Emotional and attention seeking
Demand approval and praise (Nestadt et al, 1990)
Higher risk of suicide and suicide attempts (Nestadt et al, 1990)

Question 15

What are the features of narcissistic personality disorder?

Answer 15

> Grandiose, seeking admiration
Lack of empathy
Report high level of self-esteem, yet score low on implicit measures of self-esteem (Jordan et al, 2003)

Question 16

What are the features of avoidant personality disorder?

Answer 16

> Frequently comorbid with social phobia
Fear of close social relationships
1-2% occurrence rate (APA, 1994)

Question 17

What are the features of dependant personality disorder?

Answer 17

> Associated with neuroticism
Three types (love, exploitable and submissive)
Love more likely to become depressed after loss of a relationship
Submissive more likely to become depressed after loss of a mentor or guide

Question 18

What are the features of obsessive compulsive personality disorder?

Answer 18

> Preoccupation with order, perfection and control
Unreasonably high standards
Trouble making decisions for fear of making a mistake

Question 19

What did Cohen et al (2006) and Rettew et al (2003) find?

Answer 19

> 25-70% variance in personality disorder symptoms can be explained by non-shared environment
Major environmental factor is abuse

Question 20

What did Miller and Lasak (1999) find?

Answer 20

> Looked at 584 college students
11% sexual abuse only, 17% physical abuse only, 10% both physical and sexual abuse
Abuse increased likelihood of PD
Multiple types of sexual abuse increased severity of PD

Question 21

What did Zanarini (1997) find?

Answer 21

> 91% of BPD suffered child abuse

> 92% of BPD suffered child neglect

Question 22

What does the biosocial theory of BPD state?

Answer 22

> BPD = Emotional vulnerability + Invalidation
Emotional vulnerability is heightened sensitivity and reaction to emotional stimuli
Invalidation is the punishing, ignoring or trivialising of emotional expression