Prevalence of alternative model of personality disorders diagnoses in a populational sample

What is it about?

The Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD), introduced in the DSM-5 (APA, 2013), was proposed to overcome the several limitations of the traditional symptom-based model (Waugh et al., 2017; Zimmerman et al., 2019). In the AMPD, PD are defined by two dimensional criteria (the level of personality functioning and maladaptive personality traits), but as a hybrid model, it also allows for categorical assessment of PD to facilitate continuity with clinical practice. The present study aimed to provide normative data for two widely used instruments assessing Criterion A (Level of Personality Functioning Scale – Self-Report; Morey, 2017) and B (Personality Inventory for DSM-5; Krueger et al., 2012) in a large populational French-Canadian sample to support clinical assessment of the AMPD. This study also reports prevalence estimates for the seven categorical personality disorders of the AMPD. In the populational sample, results showed that prevalence rates varied from 0.2% (antisocial PD) to 3.0% (trait-specified PD), with an overall prevalence of 5.9% to 6.1% for any PD. Prevalence was higher in men than in women in the populational sample, but the contrary was observed in the at-risk sample. Prevalence was higher in younger adults than in middle-aged and older adults.

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Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash

Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This is the first study to report on the prevalence of categorical personality disorders according to the alternative model of personality disorders in la large populational sample. It also provides clinicians and researchers with normative data to interpret their clients or participants test results to two widely used assessment instruments for the alternative model of personality disorders.