Personality Disorders: Avoidant, Dependent, and Obsessive Compulsive

This is the last episode in the personality disorders series on First Line. Join me for a discussion on Cluster C disorders (Avoidant, Dependent, and Obsessive Compulsive), also known as the anxious and fearful cluster. 

A few notes about personality disorders that I want to cover or reiterate:

Unspecified personality disorder can be diagnosed in an individual who meets the criteria of rigid personality traits that impair function and cause distress while having characteristics of more than one personality disorder without meeting the minimum criteria for any one.

Psychodynamic therapy is first line treatment for personality disorders. It focuses on making the person aware of their traits and then taking steps to modify his or her behavior and thought process to take on healthier ways of interacting with the world. This is especially effective for histrionic PD, avoidant PD, dependent PD, and obsessive compulsive PD. Antisocial PD is unfortunately unlikely to benefit. Other options for therapy include CBT, supportive psychotherapy, and group psychotherapy.

Medications DO NOT lead to personality changes, but it is a good idea to treat co-occurring anxiety and depression to better support individuals for personality disorders. 

Many of the PDs start to mellow out when individuals are in their 30s and 40s (especially borderline), but this is less true for schizotypal and obsessive compulsive PDs.

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