Three-pronged assessment and diagnosis of personality disorder and its consequences: personality functioning, pathological traits, and psychosocial disability.

ABSTRACT: The alternative dimensional model of personality disorder (PD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013), Section III, has two main criteria: impairment in personality functioning and one or more pathological personality traits. The former is defined as disturbances in self-functioning (viz., identity, self-direction), and/or interpersonal functioning (viz., empathy, intimacy). Distinguishing personality functioning and traits is important conceptually, because simply having extreme traits is not necessarily pathological. However, adding personality functioning to PD diagnosis represents an empirical challenge, because the constructs overlap conceptually. Further, there is debate regarding whether diagnosis of

SUBMITTER: Clark LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4316724 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature