Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is an underdiagnosed psychiatric condition in which there is minimal research to support a validated treatment regimen. As a result, it is unclear how mental health practitioners approach NPD patients and the outcomes of clinical management. Given this gap in current mental health practice, this article explores the attitudes of clinicians toward treating NPD patients and the clinician-reported outcomes of managing NPD patients. The study uses a qualitative and quantitative approach to analyze the results of a 16-question survey about clinicians' experiences working with NPD patients. 173 participants were recruited from online psychology interest forums between April 2019 to August 2019. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Scientist (SPSS-26). The qualitative data showed that clinicians find NPD patients to be difficult and challenging. Additionally, clinicians report minimal experience treating NPD and high treatment drop-out rates. The quantitative data were evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficients. These results show that clinicians who view NPD as a diagnosis worth treating report more benefit from their care. These results also showed that participants who report formal didactic training in NPD have better results with their patients. The data also show that clinicians feel group therapy can be helpful in treating NPD, despite reporting that it is often not offered to NPD patients. This is an area that can direct future NPD research to develop a comprehensive approach to NPD management.
IntroductionPrevention of suicide‐related behaviors is considered a top clinical priority within the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense. Despite previous literature attesting to the likely importance of situational stress as a key correlate of acute changes in suicide risk, longitudinal research into associations between situational stress and suicide‐related outcomes among military personnel has been relatively limited.MethodsThe current study examined associations between situational stress, recent suicide attempt, and future suicide attempt using data from 14,508 Army soldiers and recently discharged veterans enrolled in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers‐Longitudinal Studies (STARRS‐LS).ResultsRecent situational stress was more common among recently discharged veterans (vs. soldiers), those with a recent suicide attempt (vs. those without), and those with a subsequent suicide attempt (vs. those without). Job loss was more closely associated with suicide attempts among soldiers, whereas financial crisis, police contact, and death, illness, or injury of close others were more closely associated with suicide attempts among recently discharged veterans.ConclusionFindings further highlight situational stress as a salient risk factor for suicide‐related outcomes among military personnel, particularly among recently discharged veterans. Implications for screening and treatment of at‐risk military personnel are discussed.
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