DSM-III Personality Disorder Diagnoses in a Nonpatient Sample: Demographic Correlates and Comorbidity

Abstract

Seven hundred ninety-seven first-degree relatives of normal controls and patients with a variety of psychiatric disorders were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule and the Structured Interview for DSM-III Personality Disorders. Slightly more than one sixth of the sample received a personality disorder (PD) diagnosis, and of those with a PD, almost one fourth had more than one. The most prevalent diagnoses were mixed, passive-aggressive, antisocial, histrionic, and schizotypal PD. The demographic correlates and frequency of Axis I disorders in individuals with each specific PD were examined, and all but histrionic and passive-aggressive PDs had distinctive profiles. © 1989, American Medica Association. All rights reserved.