Personality disorders: community prevalence and socio-demographic correlates

Curr Opin Psychol. 2018 Jun:21:28-32. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.09.001. Epub 2017 Sep 14.

Abstract

Multiple studies have reported community prevalence rates of personality disorders (PDs), but these studies differed in terms of diagnostic criteria, assessment instruments, communities sampled, and size, producing widely ranging estimates. We take a meta-analytic approach to characterizing PD community prevalence rates by comparing results from two reviews that pooled previous studies. Overall, particular PD rates are low in community samples, but the presence of any PD is relatively high, with approximately one person in seven experiencing personality psychopathology. High congruence of prevalence estimates, but low rank-order agreement of rates, was observed. We discuss how the presence of PD is associated with socio-demographic correlates such as gender, race/ethnicity, and age and highlight areas for further study.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Demography
  • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
  • Ethnicity / statistics & numerical data
  • Humans
  • Personality Assessment
  • Personality Disorders / diagnosis
  • Personality Disorders / epidemiology*
  • Personality Disorders / psychology
  • Prevalence