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Prevalence and correlates of personality disorders in a community sample

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore

WILLIAM W. EATON, PhD

Department of Mental Hygiene, The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore

O. JOSEPH BIENVENU, III, MD

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore

CLAYTON H. BROWN, PhD

Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore

PAUL T. COSTA, Jr, PhD

Gerontology Research Center, National Institute of Ageing, Baltimore

GERALD NESTADT, MB

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA

Correspondence: Dr Jack Samuels, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Meyer 4-181, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA

Declaration of interest Supported by National Institutes of Health grants MH50616 and MH47447, and a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Clinical Scientist Award (to J.B.).

Background Knowledge of the prevalence and correlates of personality disorders in the community is important for identifying treatment needs and for provision of psychiatric services.

Aims To estimate the prevalence of personality disorders in a community sample and to identify demographic subgroups with especially high prevalence.

Method Clinical psychologists used the International Personality Disorder Examination to assess DSM-IV and ICD-10 personality disorders in a sample of 742 subjects, ages 34-94 years, residing in Baltimore, Maryland. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between demographic characteristics and DSM-IV personality disorder clusters.

Results The estimated overall prevalence of DSM-IV personality disorders was 9%. Cluster A disorders were most prevalent in men who had never married. Cluster B disorders were most prevalent in young men without a high school degree, and cluster C disorders in high school graduates who had never married.

Conclusions Approximately 9% of this community sample has a DSM-IV personality disorder. Personality disorders are over-represented in certain demographic subgroups of the community.

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