Diagnosing Personality Disorders

Our personalities are in large part how we define ourselves as individuals, influencing how we perceive, relate to, and think about ourselves, our environment, and those around us. Some of our personality traits are encouraged by parents and caregivers so that as children we can adapt to our society. However, some children and adolescents develop patterns of behaviour which cause clinically significant distress to themselves or those around them, impairing their ability to function in a range of situations. In some of these cases, the individual may have a personality disorder, which is a pattern of outward behavior and internal experience that is decidedly different from how the individual's society expects people to behave. This course explains the DSM-5 and ICD-10 coding of the major personality disorders and which disorders are grouped into each of three clusters. It then describes the features of the paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, dissocial, emotionally unstable, histrionic, narcissistic, anxious (avoidant), dependent, and anankastic personality disorders. The program also briefly discusses personality change due to another medical condition. <p>&nbsp;</p> <b>DSM-5-TR update:</b> While this video discusses mental conditions in terms of how the diagnosis would be treated in the DSM-5, the current iteration of the DSM is the DSM-5-TR. However, the clinical material discussed in this video is still current.