Prevalence of personality disorders among patients with anxiety disorders

William C. Sanderson, Scott Wetzler, Aaron T. Beck, Frank Betz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

124 Scopus citations

Abstract

Outpatients with a principal diagnosis of an anxiety disorder (n = 347) were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R/Axis II Disorders (SCID-II) during their intake evaluation. At least one personality disorder was found in 35% of these patients. Patients with social phobia (61%) and generalized anxiety disorder (49%) were most often diagnosed with a personality disorder. Patients with simple phobia were rarely diagnosed with a personality disorder (12%). The most commonly diagnosed personality disorders were from the "anxious/fearful" cluster (27% received at least one diagnosis from cluster C), most notably avoidant and obsessive-compulsive personality. Our findings suggest that personality disorders, in general, are less prevalent among anxious patients than among depressive patients.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)167-174
Number of pages8
JournalPsychiatry Research
Volume51
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1994

Keywords

  • Diagnosis
  • avoidant disorder
  • comorbidity
  • obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • social phobia

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Biological Psychiatry

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Prevalence of personality disorders among patients with anxiety disorders'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this