Establishing the severity of personality disorder

Objective: The authors dei’eloped a simplified method of rating the severity of personality disorder. Method: The new rating method is based on four levels of severity: no personality disorder, personality difficulty, simple personality disorder, and diffuse personality disorder. The new method was applied to different diagnostic systems and was then compared with an old rating system based on six severity levels. Data were derived from a longitudinal study in which 1 63 patiezts with a?zxiety and depressive disorders had initial assessments of personality status and were followed up over 2 years. Ratings ofpsychiatric symptoms were made by using the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale over this period. The results were ana-lyzed with special attention to li,zear and quadratic trends. Results: The new system was clini-call) useful ii separating patients ‘ i,zitial assessments and outcomes. Patients with no person-alit) ’ disorder had the lowest initial symptom scores and the best outcomes, and those with diffuse personality disorder had the highest initial levels ofsymptoms and improved least over the 2 years. When the patients were separated by the old classification system, 72 % of the variation bettveez groups was accounted for by linear and quadratic trends; the comparable percentage was 97 % when the patients were categorized by the new system. Conclusions: Th