1. Personality Disorder Features Through the Life Course
- Author
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Eva Baillés, Fernando Gutiérrez, Xavier Caseras, Liliana Ferraz, Miguel Gárriz, Josep M. Peri, and Gemma Vall
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Cross-sectional study ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Personality Disorders ,Young Adult ,medicine ,Personality ,Humans ,Young adult ,Psychiatry ,Pathological ,media_common ,Aged ,Aged, 80 and over ,Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ,Age Factors ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Personality disorders ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Clinical Psychology ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Psychiatric status rating scales ,Life course approach ,Female ,Psychology ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Personality Disorders have proved to be more fluid through the life course than previously thought. However, because analyses have usually been undertaken at the level of diagnostic categories, relevant findings may be obscured. An examination at the criteria level could bypass arbitrary aggregations of heterogeneous traits and thus offer more accurate information. To this end, we administered the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) to 1,477 patients aged 15 to 82. Nine of 12 disorders declined to some extent over the lifespan, but the evolution of individual criteria diverged within categories. At this level, 45 of 93 criteria showed age-related decreases, whereas only seven presented increases. A clearer picture is offered of the PD traits that change and those that remain stable. Thus, pathological features are not only more fluid, but developmentally more heterogeneous than previously believed.
- Published
- 2012
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