Personality Disorders

Key points

• Personality disorders: enduring, inflexible patterns beginning by early adulthood, causing distress/impairment.
• Cluster A ('odd/eccentric'): paranoid · schizoid · schizotypal.
• Cluster B ('dramatic'): antisocial (dissocial) · borderline (emotionally unstable) · histrionic · narcissistic.
• Cluster C ('anxious/fearful'): avoidant (anxious) · dependent · obsessive-compulsive (anankastic).
• Borderline PD: emotional instability, unstable relationships, recurrent self-harm, fear of abandonment — management is psychological (DBT/mentalisation); avoid polypharmacy.

Decision points in this pathway

• Borderline features (instability, self-harm, abandonment fear)?

The full step-by-step algorithm, including what to do at each branch, opens in the app for approved members.