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13.3: Personality Disorders - Comorbidity

  • Page ID
    161491
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    Learning Objectives
    • Describe the comorbidity of personality disorders.

    Among the most common comorbid diagnoses with personality disorders are mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse disorders (Lenzenweger, Lane, Loranger, & Kessler, 2007). A large meta-analysis exploring the data on the comorbidity of major depressive disorder and personality disorders indicated a high diagnosis of major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and dysthymia (Friborg, Martinsen, Martinussen, Kaiser, Overgard, & Rosenvinge, 2014). Further exploration of major depressive disorder suggested the lowest rate of diagnosis in Cluster A disorders, higher rate in Cluster B disorders, and the highest rate in Cluster C disorders. While the relationship between bipolar disorder and personality disorders has not been consistently clear, the most recent findings report a high comorbidity between Cluster B personality disorders, with the exception of OCPD (which is in Cluster C), which had the highest comorbidity rate than any other personality disorder. Overall analysis of dysthymia suggested that it is the most diagnosed depressive disorder among all personality disorders.

    A more detailed analysis exploring the prevalence rates of the four main anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobia, social phobia, and panic disorder) among individuals with various personality disorders found a clear relationship specific to personality disorders and anxiety disorders (Skodol, Geier, Grant, & Hasin, 2014). More specifically, individuals diagnosed with borderline and schizotypal personality disorders were found to have an additional diagnosis of one of the four main anxiety disorders. Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder were more likely to be diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder; schizoid and avoidant personality disorders reported significant rates of generalized anxiety disorder; avoidant personality disorder had a higher diagnosis rate of social phobia. Substance use disorders occur less frequently across the ten personality disorders but are most common in individuals diagnosed with antisocial, borderline, and schizotypal personality disorders (Grant et al., 2015). Schizotypal personality disorder is also comorbid with brief psychotic disorder, schizophreniform disorder, delusional disorder, and schizophrenia while borderline is additionally comorbid with eating disorders, PTSD, and ADHD (APA, 2022).

    Key Takeaways

    You should have learned the following in this section:

    • Mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse disorders have a high comorbidity with personality disorders.
    • Substance abuse disorders occur less frequently across the ten personality disorders but when they do, are comorbid with antisocial, borderline, and schizotypal personality disorders.
    Review Questions
    1. With what other disorders are personality disorders comorbid?

    This page titled 13.3: Personality Disorders - Comorbidity is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Alexis Bridley and Lee W. Daffin Jr. via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.