Match Prototype to Patients to Identify Personality Disorders

Diagnosing personality disorders has traditionally been difficult. Few clinicians bother to systematically verify axis II diagnoses with checklists of criteria detailed in the DSM-IV; most either diagnose personality disorders by gestalt or simply record “diagnosis deferred.” These researchers empirically derived a taxonomy (Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure–II) shown to reduce comorbidity among personality disorder diagnoses and capable of identifying syndromes absent from DSM-IV such as depressive personality disorder.

In the present study, 1201 experienced psychiatrists and psychologists each described one of their patients with some personality dysfunction and rated how much each of 200 carefully derived personality-descriptive items —…