Comorbidity is a psychological term used to describe the occurrence of more than one diagnosis in a single patient. Comorbidity is common in the diagnosis of psychological disorders.
Description:
The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) Criteria for Personality Disorders are broad and imprecise and the APA acknowledges that diagnosis is a subjective art. A patient has to exhibit some, but not all of the traits of a particular disorder in order to be given that diagnosis. Additionally, there is a lot of overlap, known as "Comorbidity" between the different definitions.
So, for example, it is possible for a person who suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder to exhibit some of the traits listed in the criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder. Likewise, it is possible for a person with Dependent Personality Disorder to behave a lot like a person with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. You can click on the links above to read more about each disorder, traits, clinical treatment regimes etc. This overlapping nature of personality disorders is known as Comorbidity.
Comorbidity Between Personality Disorders
The following table shows statistically how likely it is that a person who is diagnosed with one personality disorder will also be diagnosed with another personality disorder, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).
The numbers displayed in the table below are a statistical measures of co-occurrence known as "tetrachoric correlations". The more positive the number, the more likely it is that a person will be diagnosed with the second personality disorder listed. The more negative the number, the less likely it is that a person will be diagnosed with the second personality disorder in the table.
Note: This data was compiled from an initial survey of 5692 people in the US. None of the people in the survey sample were identified as meeting the criteria for Histrionic Persoanlity Disorder or Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and no comorbidity information is therefore given for HPD or NPD.
Comorbidity Between Personality Disorders and DSM-IV Axis I Disorders
67% of people who meet the DSM-IV criteria for a Personality DIsorder have been found in a 2007 study to also meet the criteria for at least one of the DSM-IV Axis I disorder. The table below shows the probability that a peson who has been diagnosed with a personality disorder will also meet the criteria for each of the following Axis I disorders, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV):
Note that although 67% of the people meeting the criteria for an Axis II - or personality disorder also meet the criteria for an Axis I disorder, the reverse is not true. Only 24.8% of people meeting the criteria for an Axis I disorder also meet the criteria for an Axis II disorder.
Feb 10, 2010 - The American Psychiatric Association today released their first draft of the 5th revision of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM-V) which regroups personality disorder diagnoses into 5 categories:
Antisocial/Psychopathic Type
Avoidant Type
Borderline Type
Obsessive-Compulsive Type
Schizotypal Type
There is also a proposed mechanism for scoring the severity and the match of each of the diagnostic traits.
The proposals are not final and the APA has a comment period starting today and ending April 20th 2010. The DSM-V is scheduled for release in May 2013.
Dec 30 2009 - Those of you who use the "stay logged in" feature of the Out of the FOG support forum will notice that you unexpectedly had to log in again today. Please don't be alarmed. This was caused by some updates to the board behind the scenes. Please excuse the inconvenience.
Nov 1 2009 - Out of the FOG is celebrating 2 years in bringing information and support to family members and loved-ones of people who suffer from personality disorders. In the two years since we launched, our traffic has grown exponentially and we are rapidly becoming one of the internet's premier sources of information on coping with personality disorders. Happy birthday OOTF and thanks to all our members and supporters around the world.
Out of the FOG Support Forum Zetaboards Upgrade
June 15 2009 - Please excuse our appearance while the Out of the FOG Support Forum upgrades to run on the new Zetaboards software platform. The new software contains a number of new features and improvements over our existing system which should become evident after the conversion is completed.
This upgrade will convert all our existing forums, posts, PM's, memberships and profiles. There should be very little interruption in service or loss of data. The only thing you will notice is changes to the appearance of the graphical interface. It will take 1-2 weeks to complete the conversion.
Our main Out of the FOG information site, here at http://www.outofthefogsite.com will be unaffected by the upgrade. Bookmark this site and visit here if you have any trouble logging into the board. Should any unexpected interruption in our service occur, an announcement will be posted in the "Latest News" Box at at http://www.outofthefogsite.com. Additionally, a temporary discussion forum has been established here which you can use should we experience any long-term interruption of service.
Please excuse any inconvenience you may experience as we perform the upgrade.
June 3 2009 - BPD author A.J. Mahari has launched a new version of her website called BPD INFO which has a section which invites members to submit website articles about BPD. Our own gary submitted an article to her site this week.
