Avoidant personality disorder: Interpersonal problems as predictors of treatment response

Abstract

Patients with avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) display varied responses to behavioral treatment. This study examined the extent to which differences in patients' problematic interpersonal behavior influenced treatment response. Outpatients (N=76) meeting diagnostic criteria for AVPD completed the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Circumplex Scales (IIP-C), a self-report measure that provides information on eight categories of interpersonal problems. As would be expected, all these patients reported problems with social avoidance and nonassertiveness. However, those patients who also had interpersonal problems related to distrustful and angry behavior benefited from the graduated exposure procedure but not from skills training. Patients with AVPD who experienced interpersonal problems related to being coerced and controlled by others, in addition to avoidance and nonassertiveness, benefited from both procedures. Skills training focused on the development of intimate relationships was of particular benefit to these patients. These results suggest that patients with AVPD differ in terms of their interpersonal problem “profiles” and that these differences influence response to behavioral intervention.