Mental health articles

GENERAL DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR PERSONALITY DISORDER
Personality disorder refers to an enduring pattern of inner experience and
behaviour that deviates markedly from expectations of the individual’s culture.

This pattern is manifested in two (or more) of the following areas:
• cognition, that is, ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people, and
events
• affectivity, meaning, the range, intensity, lability and appropriateness of
emotional response
• interpersonal functioning and relationship disturbances
• impulse control difficulties
• the enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in
social, occupational or other areas of functioning, such as relationships with
family and friends, ability to get and keep jobs, and the ability to deal with
day-to-day interactions within society
• the pattern of behaviour is stable and of long duration and its onset can be
traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood; early traumatic
experiences can often be recalled by those with personality disorder
• the enduring pattern is not better accounted for as a manifestation or
consequence of another mental disorder.

Tags: disorder, Personality Disorder