Personality Disorders

Personality Disorders

General diagnostic criteria for a Personality Disorder as per DSM-IV

 
A.      An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture. This pattern is manifested in two (or more) of the following areas:

(1) Cognition (i.e., ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people, and events)
(2) Affectivity (i.e., the range, intensity, lability, and appropriateness of emotional response)
(3) Interpersonal functioning
(4) Impulse control
 
B.      The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations.
C.      The enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
D.      The pattern is stable and of long duration and its onset can be traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood.
E.      The enduring pattern is not better accounted for as a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder.
F.      The enduring pattern is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., head trauma).
 
 
 

General Criteria for a Personality Disorder DSM-5 Criteria (Revised June 2011)


 
 

The essential features of a personality disorder are impairments in personality (self and interpersonal) functioning and the presence of pathological personality traits. To diagnose a personality disorder, the following criteria must be met:
 
 
A. Significant impairments in self (identity or self-direction) and interpersonal (empathy or intimacy) functioning.
B. One or more pathological personality trait domains or trait facets.
C. The impairments in personality functioning and the individual‟s personality trait expression are relatively stable across time and consistent across situations.
D. The impairments in personality functioning and the individual‟s personality trait expression are not better understood as normative for the individual‟s developmental stage or socio-cultural environment.
E. The impairments in personality functioning and the individual‟s personality trait expression are not solely due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., severe head trauma).