Please find below a list of disorders in the diagnostic class Personality Disorders. The Personality and Personality Disorders Work Group has been responsible for addressing these disorders. You will find that the work group has recommended a significant reformulation of the approach to the assessment and diagnosis of personality psychopathology, including the proposal of a revised general category of personality disorder, and the provision for clinicians to rate dimensions of personality traits, a limited set of personality types, and the overall severity of personality dysfunction. Accordingly, the structure of this section of the Web site is necessarily somewhat different from those of the other disorders.
Changes to the Reformulation of Personality Disorders for DSM-5 (Updated January 21, 2011)
A hybrid dimensional-categorical model for personality and personality disorder assessment and diagnosis has been proposed for DSM-5 field testing. Since its original posting on the APA’s DSM-5 Web site in February of 2010, the model has been simplified and streamlined in response to comments received and to critiques in the published literature.
In its current iteration, ratings from three assessments combine to comprise the essential criteria for a personality disorder:
(1) A rating of mild impairment or greater on the Levels of Personality Functioning (criterion A),
(2) A rating of
(a) a “good match” or “very good match” to a Personality Disorder Type or
(b) “quite a bit” or “extremely” descriptive on one or more of six Personality Trait Domains (criterion B).
(3) Diagnosis also requires relative stability of (1) and (2) across time and situations, and excludes culturally normative personality features and those due to the direct physiological effects of a substance or a general medical condition.
The levels of personality functioning are based on the severity of disturbances in self and interpersonal functioning. Disturbances in thinking about the self are reflected in dimensions of identity and self-directedness. Interpersonal disturbances consist of impairments in empathy and intimacy. The five disorder types (e.g., borderline, obsessive compulsive) are combinations of core personality pathology, personality traits, and behaviors. Six broad personality trait domains (e.g., disinhibition and compulsivity) are defined, as well as component trait facets (e.g., impulsivity and perfectionism). Levels of personality functioning, the degree of correspondence between a patient’s personality (disorder) and a type, and personality trait domains and facets are all dimensional ratings.
The personality domain in DSM-5 is intended to describe the personality characteristics of all patients, whether they have a personality disorder or not. The assessment “telescopes” the clinician’s attention from a global rating of the overall severity of impairment in personality functioning through increasing degrees of detail and specificity in describing personality psychopathology that can be pursued depending on constraints of time and information and on expertise.