Schizotypal Personality Disorder (STPD)

DSM-IV-TR Criteria for Schizotypal Personality Disorder (STPD)

Scizotypal Personality Disorder (STPD) is listed in the DSM-IV-TR as a "Cluster A" (odd or eccentric) Personality Disorder.

Text in Bold Italics is quoted from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM-IV)

Schizotypal Personality Disorder (STPD) is defined as:

A pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by acute discomfort with, and reduced capacity for, close relationships as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behavior, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. Ideas of reference (excluding delusions of reference).
2. Odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with subcultural norms (e.g., superstitiousness, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy, or "sixth sense"; in children and adolescents, bizarre fantasies or preoccupations).
3. Unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions.
4. Odd thinking and speech (e.g., vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, overelaborate, or stereotyped).
5. Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation.
6. Inappropriate or constricted affect.
7. Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric, or peculiar.
8. Lack of close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives
9. Social anxiety that tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgments about self.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder and Schizoid Personality Diosrder are closely reelated and share a number of common characteristics particularly evident in a lack of ability to form and maintain social relationships. The diagnoses differ in the attitude in that peopel who suffer Schizotypal Personality Disorder avoid relationships out of fear while people with Schizoid personality avoid relationships out of disinterest.

A formal diagnosis of STPD requires a mental health professional to identify 5 out of the above 9 criteria as positive. Some people with STPD may exhibit all 9, most will exhibit only a few.

Nobody’s perfect. Even normal healthy people will experience or exhibit a few of the above criteria from time to time. This does not make a person STPD.

Understanding the clinical criteria for Schizotypal Personality Disorder (STPD) is helpful but learning how to cope with having a loved-one who suffers from STPD is quite different and is not covered in any psychological manual.

One of the most effective ways we have found to deal with that is to get support from people who understand what it feels like to be in a relationship or be a family member of someone who suffers from a personality disorder and have learned how to cope. You can find people like that at our Support Forum.

For More Information & Support...

If you suspect you may have a family member or partner who suffers from a personality disorder, we encourage you to learn all you can and surround yourself with support as you learn how to cope.

• Support Forum - Read real stories. Ask questions.
• Behaviors & Traits of people with PD's.
• Non-PD Toolbox - Coping ideas. Common mistakes.
• Personality Disorder Glossary - Learn the lingo.
• Links to PD- related sites.
• Books about personality disorders.

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