Validation of DSM-5 clinician-rated measures of personality pathology.

Abstract

The American Psychiatric Association supported the development of several instruments to assess personality pathology according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5) Section III. These instruments include self- and informant report forms as well as clinician-rated measures of personality traits and impairment. To date, the psychometric properties of the DSM-5 Section III clinician-rated measures have received limited investigation. The objective of the current investigation was to evaluate the convergence between self-report and clinician-rated measures of DSM-5 personality pathology in a diagnostically heterogeneous psychiatric patient sample. A total of 201 outpatients with current psychiatric symptoms were recruited from a psychiatric hospital patient research registry. Participants completed both clinician-rated and self-reported measures of personality pathology. Self-reported personality traits converged with clinician-rated personality traits, with medium to large effect sizes. Current and Section III personality disorder criteria demonstrated significant convergence, most with medium to large effect sizes. Self-reported and clinician-rated personality impairment correlated with small to medium effect sizes. The current investigation incorporates a multi-informant assessment of personality in a psychiatric outpatient sample. These results provide evidence for the validity of the scores of the clinician-rated instruments used to implement this model. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).