Axis II Comorbidity of Self-Defeating Personality Disorder

DSM‐III‐R self‐defeating personality disorder criteria evaluated by patients' self‐report questionnaire: relationships with other personality disorders and positive predictive powers of the individual criteria

“…The sample of 64 patients had been referred to a psychiatric service for a geographically defined catchment area that included urban and rural components, so that although this group cannot be said to be representative of PD in psychiatric populations, it is likely that the findings will have relevance to many patients in routine psychiatric practice. Nurnberg et al (4) have noted differences between previously reported patient samples in studies of SDPD and pointed out that these can influence co-occurring diagnoses. However, some of the findings in the present study are consistent with several previous reports (4,8,11,12), in that the present 20% prevalence of SDPD is within the range in previous reports (14-21%) and several co-occurring PD diagnoses is the usual finding if a PD diagnosis is present.…”

“…Nurnberg et al (4) have noted differences between previously reported patient samples in studies of SDPD and pointed out that these can influence co-occurring diagnoses. However, some of the findings in the present study are consistent with several previous reports (4,8,11,12), in that the present 20% prevalence of SDPD is within the range in previous reports (14-21%) and several co-occurring PD diagnoses is the usual finding if a PD diagnosis is present. There can be poor agreement between PD diagnosis by various versions of the PDQ self-report questionnaires and by structured interviews, but concordance between interview methods has also been found to be low (19).…”

“…Previous studies (3, 4, 7) using other assessment methods have found associations of SDPD with cluster C PDs (in particular, avoidant and dependent PDs) and with borderline PD. (Although there was a failure to demonstrate an association with borderline PD in one study (4), this was considered to reflect the selection of the sample). The present findings with the self-report format are consistent with these previous reports, which have used clinical ratings and structured interviews; namely, the mean of the present correlations between SDPD scores of positive criteria and the scores of each of the cluster C PDs was higher than the means for the other 2 clusters, and, in relation to individual PDs, the highest correlation of SDPD scores was with the scores for borderline PD.…”

“…It has been noted that the SDPD features may describe a recognizable group of patients in clinical practice when, in a hierarchical approach to P D diagnosis, SDPD seems predominant, but that SDPD characteristics are also found in patients for whom other PDs are predominant (4). The present study aimed to evaluate features of DSM-111-R SDPD criteria in patients with a variety of P D psychopathology in routine psychiatric practice settings.…”

“…Self-defeating personality disorder (SDPD) was one of the DSM-111-R "proposed diagnostic categories needing further study" (1) and has attracted criticism and controversy (2,3 ) ; for example, it has been claimed that it may have an inherent sex bias and reflect an adaptive response to repeated abuse and violence (4). It was derived from proposed criteria for "masochistic personality disorder" (MPD) (5), but only 4 of the 10 MPD criteria were retained in a similar form to contribute to the 8 criteria that define SDPD.…”