Personality functioning in anxiety disorders

Abstract

BackgroundThe Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders as well as the upcoming IDC-11 have established a new focus on diagnosing personality disorders (PD): personality functioning. An impairment of self and interpersonal functioning in these models represents a general diagnostic criterion for a personality disorder. Little is known so far about the impairment of personality functioning in patients with other mental disorders than PD. This study aims to assess personality functioning in patients with anxiety disorders.MethodsNinety-seven patients with the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, or phobia, and 16 healthy control persons were diagnosed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I and -II) and were assessed by means of the Structured Interview for Personality Organization (STIPO) to determine the level of personality functioning.ResultsWhile all three patient groups showed significant impairment in personality functioning compared to the control group, no significant differences were observed between the different patient groups. In all three groups of anxiety disorders patients with comorbid PD showed significantly worse personality functioning than patients without. Patients without comorbid PD also yielded a significant impairment in their personality functioning when compared to the control group.ConclusionsAnxiety disorders are associated with a significant impairment in personality functioning, which is significantly increased by comorbid PD. There are no differences in terms of personality functioning between patients with different anxiety disorders.

Semi‐structured interview for personality functioning DSM‐5 (STiP‐5.1): Psychometric evaluation of the Czech version

“…Additional aims might focus on the predictive power of the levels of personality functioning on various outcomes, test-retest reliabilities, effects of treatments, and discrepancies of answers with other sources of information. Moreover, it was suggested that personality functioning is related not only to personality disorders but also to other mental disorders, for example, anxiety (Doering et al, 2018). Therefore, future studies might focus on the personality functioning in other mental disorders or personality dimensions.…”

“…Conceptually, this approach distinguishes PDs from other mental disorders by identifying the shared commonalities of people with PD (Bach & Hutsebaut, 2018). Moreover, clinicians and researchers gain a better understanding of the diagnosis and possible treatment of mental disorders by assessing the impairment of personality functioning (Doering et al, 2018).…”

Higher- and lower-order personality traits and cluster subtypes in social anxiety disorder

“…There is a need of further studies examining if the current personality differences are specific for SAD and if they are generalizable across epidemiological-clinical samples and culturally diverse populations. Also, the current SAD clusters should ideally be compared, not only on social anxiety symptom severity, but also on personality functioning, involving self (identity, direction) and interpersonal (empathy, intimacy) dimensions demonstrated to be impaired in anxiety disorders [88]. Assessment of personality functioning has been added to the alternative diagnostic model for personality disorders in DSM-5.…”

Angstproblematiken: Dimensionale Betrachtung und Einbettung in die Persönlichkeit

“…Diese Befunde sprechen sowohl für einen dimensionalen Ansatz als auch für die Bedeutung des PN als übergeordneten Faktor 9 in der Konzeptualisierung und Diagnostik von Angstzuständen. Der klinische Nutzen der Erfassung des PN bei Patienten mit Angststörungen deckt sich zudem mit theoretischen Annahmen psychodynamischer Theorien 10 .…”