New criteria for personality disorders in DSM-V

Abstract

Diagnosing disorders in the current edition of the DSMIV involves two aspects. The first is the concept of a personality disorder, which currently is defined as a pervasive, stable and presents at least from adolescence pattern of “inner experience and behavior” that is deviant from a person’s cultural norms. The second aspect involves defining what type of personality disorder is present among a list of ten, with a catch-all “not otherwise specified category”. There are many problems with the existing system: the different personality types are poorly defined and the diagnostic criteria overlap heavily. The proposed revision on the DSM-V website appears quite complicated and has three major facets: a new definition for personality disorder, focused on “adaptive failure” involving “impaired sense of self-identity” or “failure to develop effective interpersonal functioning”; five personality types (Antisocial/Psychopathic, Avoidant, Borderline, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Schizotypal); and a series of six personality “trait domains”, each of them with a subset of facets. This new proposed system for personality disorder diagnosis may be controversial. This new proposed system for personality disorder diagnosis may be controversial. Finally challenges for the next future are discussed.