Chapter 19 Personality disorders

Summary Personality disorder constitutes a range of important conditions, which is as yet imperfectly defined, and represents a large part of psychiatric disorders and cannot be ignored by anyone involved in the management of mental illness. It is now realized that personality disorder is more common than even mental state disorders and affects approximately 10% of the adult population. It leads to considerable suffering, both to the individuals concerned and to others, and tends to adversely affect response to treatment and longterm outcome of mental disorders. However, in the last few years there have been optimistic reports supported by controlled clinical trials that these disorders can be helped by several forms of treatment, and this is beginning to alter their status as the diagnostic lepers in the community of psychiatric disorders.