Personality traits and disorders among adult ADHD Patients: Is borderline personality disorder as common as we expect?

Abstract

IntroductionPatients with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have shown a high risk to develop a DSM cluster B (i.e., Borderline, OR = 13.16; Antisocial, OR = 3.03; Narcissistic, OR = 8.69) and DSM Avoidant personality disorder (OR = 9.77). Similarly, higher rates of DSM cluster B personality disorder were found among adult ADHD patients (6-25%) than general population. Although some authors investigated the prevalence of personality traits and disorders among adult ADHD patients, no studies have been yet reported about the assessment of Millon's Evolution-Based Personality profiles in adult ADHD patients.AimsTo explore the prevalence of personality traits and disorders among adult ADHD patients.MethodsMillon's personality traits and disorders were assessed in a consecutive sample of 35 adult ADHD outpatients accessing the Service for Adult ADHD of the AOU San Luigi Gonzaga (Orbassano, TO) using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory–III (MCMI-III).ResultsAccording to the MCMI-III manual, ADHD patients in our sample showed more frequently both Cluster C and Cluster A traits and disorders, with a high prevalence of avoidant/depressive (8.6%/14.3%) and negativistic/self-defeating (20%/5.7%) personality disorders. Conversely, we found a low prevalence of Narcissistic (5.7%) and Histrionic (5.7%) traits, and no patient showed Borderline personality traits or disorder.ConclusionsUnexpectedly, the dimensional assessment of adult ADHD personality reveals a high prevalence of cluster C and cluster A personality traits and disorders, and a low prevalence of cluster B personality disorders.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.