Journal of Personality Disorders - archive

2009 - Volume 23, Issue 6



1. Adjectival descriptors for antisocial personality trait in chinese university students

 

Rongrong Yu, Shaohua Yu, Yuhong Liu, Wei Chen, et al.

Journal of Personality Disorders. New York: Dec 2009. Vol. 23, Iss. 6; pg. 661, 8 pgs

 

 Investigators used the lexical approach in which Chinese dictionaries were used to identify 48 adjectives representing antisocial personality traits. These were used to construct ratings scales which were administered to 301 university students in different geographical regions of China. Factor analysis yielded three factors labeled Intolerant, Assaulting, and Fierce and Malicious. The 10 adjectives with highest loadings for each factor were used to develop a short inventory, the Chinese Adjectival Descriptors for Antisocial Personality Trait. The inventory was administered to 448 undergraduate students in the four areas of China. Again a three factor structure was obtained. The internal reliabilities of the three were .85, .81, and .81 for Fierce and Malicious, Assaulting, and Intolerant, respectively. Men scored significantly higher than women on Fierce and Malicious and Assaulting.

 

 

2. Clinical validity of the "dimensional assessment of personality pathology (dapp)" for psychiatric patients with and without a personality disorder diagnosis

 

Ralf Pukrop, Iris Steinbring, Iris Gentil, Caspar Schulte, et al.

Journal of Personality Disorders. New York: Dec 2009. Vol. 23, Iss. 6; pg. 572, 15 pgs

 

 There is a movement towards a dimensional classification of personality disorders (PD). However, data linking dimensional systems and the categorical system for classifying PD are lacking. In the present study, N = 165 normal subjects and N = 222 nonpsychotic in-patients (including N = 81 patients with a PD diagnosis) completed the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ) measuring 18 PD traits. DSM-IV PD symptoms were assessed by SCID-II interviews. Group differences were analyzed by ANCOVA, and the relation between the dimensional and categorical approach was investigated by regression, ROC, and MDS analyses. Patients with PD exhibited elevated scores on all DAPP traits compared with controls. Patients without PD scored in between. Each DSM-IV PD could be described by a distinct profile of DAPP traits. Results support the assumption that the DAPP trait system can represent mean differences between clinically defined subgroups. The categorical system can be mapped onto the dimensional DAPP system with sufficient clinical specificity.

 

 

3. Latent structure of a two-dimensional model of antisocial personality disorder: construct validation and taxometric analysis

 

Glenn D Walters.

Journal of Personality Disorders. New York: Dec 2009. Vol. 23, Iss. 6; pg. 647, 14 pgs

 

 Indicators from three different self-report measures-the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS), the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy (LSRP) scale, and the Antisocial Features (ANT) scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory-were organized into two dimensions, proactive and reactive, and subjected to construct validation and taxometric analysis in 637 male medium and maximum security inmates. Using three nonredundant and relatively independent taxometric procedures, mean above minus below a cut (MAMBAC), maximum eigenvalue (MAXEIG), and latent mode factor analysis (L-Mode), consistent evidence of dimensional latent structure was discerned for the proactive and reactive dimensions of antisociality, both of which correlated moderately with a measure of antisocial personality disorder. It is reasoned that the two-dimensional model may eventually be capable of bridging the gap between childhood aggression and adult criminality as well as provide guidance to clinicians working with criminal offenders.

 

 

4. Sedative-hypnotic use in patients with borderline personality disorder and axis ii comparison subjects

 

David T Plante, Mary C Zanarini, Frances R Frankenburg, M Fitzmaurice.

Journal of Personality Disorders. New York: Dec 2009. Vol. 23, Iss. 6; pg. 563, 9 pgs

 

 Sleep disturbance is a common, yet poorly understood, phenomenon in borderline personality disorder (BPD). We examined the use of sedative-hypnotic medication in BPD, as part of a larger naturalistic study. In comparison to other personality disorder (OPD) comparison subjects, a significantly higher percentage of BPD subjects than OPD subjects used both as needed (prn) and standing medications to help them sleep. Specifically, over the course of the study, BPD subjects were approximately 4 times more likely to have used prn (OR = 4.27, 95% CI: 2.22-8.22) and standing sleeping medications (OR = 3.81, 95% CI: 1.88-7.72). When adjusted for differences in depression, anxiety, and age among BPD and OPD subjects, BPD subjects were approximately 3 times more likely to have used prn (adjusted OR = 3.38, 95% CI: 1.73-6.61) and standing sleeping medications (adjusted OR = 2.81, 95% CI: 1.33-5.95). These results indicate that sedative-hypnotic use is greater among BPD than OPD subjects. They also confirm clinical observations that subjective sleep disturbance is a significant problem in BPD.

 

 

5. Taxometric evidence for the dimensional structure of cluster-c, paranoid, and borderline personality disorders

 

Arnoud Arntz, David Bernstein, Dominique Gielen, Syrthe van Nieuwenhuyzen, et al.

Journal of Personality Disorders. New York: Dec 2009. Vol. 23, Iss. 6; pg. 606, 23 pgs

 

 Despite a lively debate about the dimensional vs. categorical nature of Personality Disorders (PDs), direct empirical tests of the underlying structure are missing for most PDs. Taxometrics can be used to investigate whether latent structures are categorical or dimensional. We investigated the latent structure underlying Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-Compulsive, Depressive, Paranoid, and Borderline PD by means of three types of taxometric analyses. SCID-II based DSM-IV PD criterion scores from 1,816 patients from Mental Health and Forensic Institutes, and 63 nonpatients, were analyzed with three types of taxometric analyses. MAMBAC, MAXEIG, and L-MODE taxometric analyses were applied on multiple criteria sets, constituted both on theoretical grounds and randomly. Assumptions for taxometric analyses were generally met. All but two of the 78 taxometric analyses indicated greater evidence for a latent dimensional structure, with better fit of empirical data to dimensional than to taxonic simulations; mean Comparative Curve Fit Index (CCFI) = .23, SD = .09. Only two analyses yielded ambiguous evidence (CCFI in the .40-.60 range) and none indicated taxonic structure.

 

 

6. The danish dapp-bq: reliability, factor structure, and convergence with scid-ii and iip-c

 

Sebastian Simonsen, Erik Simonsen.

Journal of Personality Disorders. New York: Dec 2009. Vol. 23, Iss. 6; pg. 629, 18 pgs

 

 The psychometric properties of the Danish version of the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic questionnaire (DAPP-BQ) were assessed in both a clinical (N = 76) and a nonclinical sample (N = 168). Internal consistencies of all scales were adequate in both samples. The four factors labeled Emotional Dysregulation (ED), Dissocial behavior (DB), Inhibition (IH), and Compulsivity (CO) were fully replicated in the clinical sample but only partially replicated in the nonclinical sample. Congruency coefficients between samples ranged from .98 to .80. Convergent validity of the DAPP-BQ was tested by correlation analysis with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID-II) and Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Circumplex (IPP-C) scores. Relationship to the SCID-II was largely as predicted and in accordance with previous research. Correlations between DAPP-BQ higher order dimensions and IPP-C were also largely as hypothesized but also called attention to important conceptual issues including the fact that the higher-order term Emotional Dysregulation may not be an adequate label for a domain of behaviors that are highly interpersonal. Overall, the results indicate a successful translation of the DAPP-BQ and the strong association with interpersonal problems is regarded as an additional support for the content validity of the model.

 

 

7. The neuropsychology of borderline personality disorder: relationship with clinical dimensions and comparison with other personality disorders

 

Imola Seres, Zsolt Unoka, Nikoletta Bódi, Nikoletta Áspan, Szabolcs Kéri.

Journal of Personality Disorders. New York: Dec 2009. Vol. 23, Iss. 6; pg. 555, 8 pgs

 

Patients with borderline personality disorder show various neuropsychological dysfunctions. However, the exact pattern of this dysfunction and its severity in comparison with other personality disorders are not known. The purpose of this study was to compare the neuropsychological performance of borderline patients (n = 50) with that of patients with other personality disorders (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 30) using the Repeatable Brief Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) test battery. Borderline patients showed deficient attention, immediate and delayed memory, and relatively spared visuospatial and language functions compared with controls (effect size range: 0.34-0.99). The neuropsychological deficit was less pronounced in patients with other personality disorders compared with controls (effect size range: 0.18-0.66). However, there was no statistically significant difference between patients with borderline and other personality disorders. The neuropsychological deficit significantly correlated with the impulsivity sector score of the Zanarini Rating Scale for Borderline Personality Disorder (ZAN-BPD). These results suggest that borderline patients are impaired in neuropsychological domains sensitive for frontal and temporal lobe functioning, and this deficit is related to impulsivity.

 

 

8. Validation of ffm pd counts for screening personality pathology and psychopathy in adolescence

 

Mieke Decuyper, Barbara De Clercq, Marleen De Bolle, Filip De Fruyt.

Journal of Personality Disorders. New York: Dec 2009. Vol. 23, Iss. 6; pg. 587, 19 pgs

 

Miller and colleagues (Miller, Bagby, Pilkonis, Reynolds, & Lynam, 2005) recently developed a Five-Factor Model (FFM) personality disorder (PD) count technique for describing and diagnosing PDs and psychopathy in adulthood. This technique conceptualizes PDs relying on general trait models and uses facets from the expert-generated PD prototypes to score the FFM PDs. The present study corroborates on the study of Miller and colleagues (2005) and investigates in Study 1 whether the PD count technique shows discriminant validity to describe PDs in adolescence. Study 2 extends this objective to psychopathy. Results suggest that the FFM PD count technique is equally successful in adolescence as in adulthood to describe PD symptoms, supporting the use of this descriptive method in adolescence. The normative data and accompanying PD count benchmarks enable to use FFM scores for PD screening purposes in adolescence.