A study published in the October 2004 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry has found that personality disorder symptoms are not as stable as once thought. Many of the symptoms change over time. In this study 250 subjects were examined for personality disorder features at 3 different time points during a 4-year study.
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Personality disorders generally have 8 or 9 symptoms, and this research found that people lose an average of 1.4 symptoms of their personality disorders each year - or over 5 symptoms over 4 years.
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Neither the presence of other mental disorders nor therapy status appeared to affect the rates of change.
- Men and women showed a similar pattern in this study.
Personality disorders usually begin before adulthood. Persons with these disorders have problems relating to people. Long-term psychotherapy is often thought to be necessary for these disorders, and some (such as antisocial personality disorder) are thought to be untreatable. More studies are needed to replicate these results, but our view of personality disorders is changing.
Source: Lenzenweger, M, Johnson, M.; Willett, J. "Individual Growth Curve Analysis Illuminates Stability and Change in Personality Disorder Features" Archives of General Psychiatry. 2004; 61:1015-1024.
