Can Research Confirm Psychopathological Subtypes and Relationship between Recurrent Mood Disorders and Personality Disorders?

Diego Cohen Ricardo Corral

doi:10.4172/2167-0277.1000195

Abstract

The aim of this study is to estimate the frequency of personality disorders in patients with recurrent unipolar or bipolar affective disorders and the possible relationship of the categorical model with two dynamic psychopathological configurations. Forty-eight patients were studied using semi-structured interviews for assessing Axis I and Axis II disorders. We found that approximately 70% of patients had some types of personality disorder according to the DSM-IV TR classification model. The most frequent personality disorders were cluster C dependent personality disorder and cluster B borderline personality disorder. The most common affective disorders were depressive bipolar I subtype disorder and manic bipolar I subtype disorder. The high frequency of personality disorders in patients who are in partial or complete remission of recurrent affective disorders can be explained by a combination of two subtypes of psycho-pathological configurations (the anaclitic or introjective configurations are based on the Blatt model) and neuro-biological interactions.

Highlights

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is a relationship between recurrent affective disorders classified as Axis I by Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV TM) and personality disorders classified as Axis II of the same manual [1]
Exclusion criteria: 1) patients with evidence or clinical history of organic mental disorder according to DSM-IV TM; 2) patients who presented with substance and/or alcohol use disorder at the time of the study diagnosis; 3) patients diagnosed with dysthymia and 4) patients who refused to complete the informed agreement
A high percentage of personality disorders were found in patients who were in complete or partial remission of recurrent affective disorders according to DSM-IV TM diagnostic criteria

Summary

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is a relationship between recurrent affective disorders classified as Axis I by Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV TM) and personality disorders classified as Axis II of the same manual [1]. The dimensional theory, which is used for assessments, considers personality disorders as clinical forms of recurrent affective disorders. This is especially true for borderline personality disorder (BPD). Some researchers consider cyclothymia or hypomanic personality disorder as a personality disorder, while other researchers judge these as a level of mood disorder [11,15,16]

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Conclusion