Personality Disorder News and Research

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Personality disorders, formerly referred to as character disorders, are a class of personality types and behaviors that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) defines as "an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the culture of the individual who exhibits it".

MDMA produces friendliness, playfulness, and loving feelings in laboratory setting

MDMA or 'ecstasy' increases feelings of empathy and social connection. These 'empathogenic' effects suggest that MDMA might be useful to enhance the psychotherapy of people who struggle to feel connected to others, as may occur in association with autism, schizophrenia, or antisocial personality disorder.

15 Dec 2010

Access problems for psychiatric patients to Medicaid medication leads to increased hospital, emergency care

Too often, mental health patients have problems accessing or paying for their prescription drugs under Medicaid. The results — longer hospital stays and more emergency room visits — are hard on patients and costly for the entire health care system, a new study finds.

10 Dec 2010

Fla. GOP takes aim at health law; Hawaii considers cuts in mental health services

Florida Republican lawmakers are reviving a proposed constitutional amendment that takes aim at a major part of the federal health overhaul with Senate President Mike Haridopolos planning the unusual step of sponsoring the proposal himself.

24 Nov 2010

Pathological gamblers more likely to commit suicide

Pathological gamblers are risking more than their money, they are also three times more likely to commit suicide than non-betters. A new Montreal inter-university study has shown these gamblers are also plagued by personality disorders. These findings, published in a recent issue of the Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, may have implications for developing improved targeted suicide prevention programs.

24 Nov 2010

Positive adult interactions during childhood guard against personality disorders later in life

Learning a hobby or other complex task in childhood with assistance from a trusted adult may help guard against the emergence of a personality disorder (PD) later on in life, reports a study in the current issue of the journal, Development and Psychopathology.

9 Nov 2010

Chronic fatigue syndrome associated with maladaptive personality features and personality disorders

This study suggests that chronic fatigue syndrome is associated with an increased prevalence of maladaptive personality features and personality disorders. This might be associated with being noncompliant with treatment suggestions, displaying unhealthy behavioral strategies and lacking a stable social environment.

8 Nov 2010

Intentional foreign body ingestion results in over $2 million hospital costs: Study

A new study from Rhode Island Hospital found that 33 individuals were responsible for 305 cases of medical intervention to remove foreign bodies that were intentionally swallowed, resulting in more than $2 million in estimated hospital costs. The findings appear in the November issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

1 Nov 2010

Transition from child to adult mental health services poorly planned and executed

Many young people with mental health problems are at risk of falling through a huge gap in provision when they move from adolescent to adult care services, according to new research from the University of Warwick.

12 Oct 2010

Researchers find heightened activation of limbic circuitry in borderline personality disorder patients

The notion that cutting or burning oneself could provide relief from emotional distress is difficult to understand for most people, but it is an experience reported commonly among people who compulsively hurt themselves.

31 Aug 2010

Notre Dame, Madison Center collaborate to research on mental health therapies

Daniel Lapsley, Ph.D., Chairman of the Department of Psychology for Notre Dame University, gives a significant amount of credit to Madison Center, Indiana's largest community mental health agency, for Notre Dame's coup in recruiting two world-class researchers. Now Notre Dame and Madison Center have created a partnership to collaborate on research that is designed to improve treatment and therapies for mental health patients.

12 Aug 2010

Asynchronous telepsychiatry provides primary-care physicians greater access to psychiatric consultation

A new study by researchers at the UC Davis School of Medicine has found that psychiatrists can accurately assess a patient's mental health by viewing videotaped interviews that are sent to them for consultation and treatment recommendations.

7 Aug 2010

Lenzenweger releases book for schizophrenia

About 1 in 10 people have the potential to develop schizophrenia, but only 1 in 100 actually end up with this devastating illness. The challenge is in knowing why some do and some don't.Drawing from over 25 years of laboratory study, Mark F. Lenzenweger, a distinguished professor of clinical science, neuroscience and cognitive psychology at Binghamton University, thinks that not only does he have the makings of a good response to this troubling question but also how to go about finding those answers.

27 Jul 2010

People with alcohol-related problems find comfort in speaking to clergy: Study

Persons with alcohol problems are finding comfort in speaking about their situation to clergy, a new study shows. Among 1,910 people with any alcohol-related problems, 14.7 percent said they used clergy services.The study, from researchers at the University of Michigan Health System and Saint Louis University, also indicates the majority of those who used services from clergy also used professional services at some point; only 0.5 percent used clergy services exclusively for their alcohol use-related problem.

15 Jul 2010

New study links psychopathy to frontal lobe dysfunction

Psychopaths are known to be characterized by callousness, diminished capacity for remorse, and lack of empathy. However, the exact cause of these personality traits is an area of scientific debate. The results of a new study, reported in the May 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex, show striking similarities between the mental impairments observed in psychopaths and those seen in patients with frontal lobe damage.

28 Apr 2010

Widely-used screening scale misidentifies borderline personality disorder as bipolar disorder

A study from Rhode Island Hospital has shown that a widely-used screening tool for bipolar disorder may incorrectly indicate borderline personality disorder rather than bipolar disorder.

26 Mar 2010

Differences in brain's reward system may underlie vulnerability to psychopathy: Study

Normal individuals who scored high on a measure of impulsive/antisocial traits display a hypersensitive brain reward system, according to a brain imaging study by researchers at Vanderbilt University. The findings provide the first evidence of differences in the brain's reward system that may underlie vulnerability to what's typically referred to as psychopathy.

16 Mar 2010

ZYPREXA RELPREVV approved by FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ZYPREXA RELPREVV (olanzapine) For Extended Release Injectable Suspension for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults, Eli Lilly and Company announced today.

14 Dec 2009

FDA approves Zyprexa in tablet form for schizophrenia and manic treatment

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved Zyprexa® (olanzapine) in tablet form as an option for the treatment of schizophrenia and manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder in adolescents aged 13-17 years old.

4 Dec 2009

Brain study of people with psychopathic personality disorder

The age-old debate of 'nature versus nurture', of how much our personality and behaviours are shaped by biology or our environment, is sharpening up as scientists' exploration of the human brain gets ever more sophisticated.

6 Oct 2009

Improving the accuracy of violent behaviour prediction may alleviate negative effects of violence

In the future, diagnosing severe personality disorders, evaluating the childhood environment, assessing alcohol consumption and the analysis of the MAOA genotype may provide more accurate means for assessing risk among violent offenders, according to the Finnish research carried out jointly at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University Central Hospital Psychiatry Centre.

28 Sep 2009