Module Components

• Overview
• Learning Activities

Topics

• Epidemiology
• Diagnoses
• Differential Diagnoses
• Treatment
• Pediatric Considerations
• Pediatric Considerations

NDNP 870 - Diagnosis and Management 1: Differential Diagnosis of Mental Disorders Across the Lifespan

Module 9: Personality Disorders, Oppositional and Conduct Disorders

Epidemiology

DSM 5 lists these diagnoses under the classification of personality disorders and is grouped into clusters:

Cluster A Paranoid Schizoid Schizotypal

Cluster B Antisocial Borderline Histrionic Narcissistic

Cluster C Avoidant Dependent Obsessive-compulsive

A personality is the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral attributes of an individual. It has an enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and one’s self that are exhibited in a wide array of social and personal contexts.

Individuals who have emotional maturity can deal constructively with reality, have the capacity to adapt to change, find more satisfaction in giving than in receiving, relate to other people in a consistent manner with mutual satisfaction and helpfulness, to direct one’s instinctive hostile energy into creative and constructive outlets and to love.

A personality disorder is an enduring pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving that is stable over time. It is inflexible and pervasive over a broad range of personal and social situations. There are impairments in functioning (social, occupational) related to these disorders.

The prevalence of personality disorders in the adult US population is 10-15%. Schizoid is slightly more common in males than females. Antisocial personality disorder is 3 times more prevalent in males than in women, while borderline, histrionic, and dependent personality disorder is more common in females. Obsessive compulsive personality disorder is diagnosed twice as often in men as in women.

Abnormalities may be seen in the frontal, temporal and parietal lobes in people with personality disorders. They may be caused by perinatal injury, encephalitis, trauma, or genetics. They also exist in patients with diminished monoamine oxidase and serotonin levels.

There are strong genetic contributions for some personality disorders (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal—schizophrenia) and antisocial