Chapter 25. Personality and Behavioral Disorders in Adults
10 topics with brief reviews: definitions, key facts, and class questions.
Personality disorders are not merely a "difficult character", but persistent, pervasive, and largely irreversible patterns of experience and behavior that lead to marked social maladaptation. In psychiatry, this topic requires special clinical sensitivity.
In this chapter, we will take a targeted look at classic specific disorders: paranoid, schizoid, dissocial, emotionally unstable, histrionic, anankastic, anxious, and dependent. A separate section is devoted to disorders of sexual preference (paraphilias) and the basic principles of treatment, where psychotherapy always takes center stage, while pharmacotherapy plays only an auxiliary role.
In seminars and exams, you are guaranteed to be asked about the famous "Ganushkin-Kerbikov triad". Also, be prepared for differential diagnosis: professors love to ask how to distinguish schizoid psychopathy from sluggish schizophrenia, and emotionally unstable disorder from bipolar disorder. Study the criteria carefully!
Are paranoid personality traits related to psychosis?
There is no direct biological kinship between personality disorder and psychosis; the similarity in names does not make one an obligatory precursor of the other. However, statistically, such disorders are more common among close relatives of patients with endogenous diseases.
Who do individuals with schizoid psychopathy trust the most?
Instead of real people, they prefer to trust books, the internet, and authoritative figures.
Are patients with unstable psychopathy capable of deep attachment to loved ones?
No, they do not form lasting attachments even to their own family. Their attitude toward relatives is purely utilitarian.
What is the main difference between histrionic and borderline disorders?
In histrionic disorder, behavior is aimed at attracting attention (demonstrative, shocking), whereas in borderline disorder, true explosiveness, an inability to control aggression, and antisocial acts come to the fore.
Emotions are manifested very vividly and demonstratively, yet remain superficial, which is associated with the dominance of the first signaling system.
Emotions are manifested very vividly and demonstratively, yet remain superficial, which is associated with the dominance of the first signaling system.
Master the entire topic in the "Psychiatry" course
This is a summary. The course covers everything tested in classes and exams.
499 pages of study guides on all topics
Assignments and quizzes after every topic — just like in a colloquium