Normal Personality Traits and Personality Disorder Features Predict Suicidal Ideation Among Older Adults

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Segal ◽  
Frederick L. Coolidge ◽  
Meghan A. Marty ◽  
William J. Meyer
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S312-S312
Author(s):  
Olivia R Noel ◽  
Lisa E Stone ◽  
Daniel L Segal

Abstract Introduction: Anxiety is a prevalent problem that has been found to be associated with multiple other mental disorders, functional impairments, and poor quality of life. Specifically, it appears that personality may play a major role in anxiety based on preferred dispositional coping methods and presence of normal and dysfunctional personality traits. The purpose of this study was to examine associations between anxiety and personality disorder (PD) features. It was hypothesized that anxiety would have positive associations with the avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive, schizotypal, paranoid, and borderline PD scales. Method: Community-dwelling older adults (N = 130) and younger adults (N = 243) completed the Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS) and the Coolidge Axis Two Inventory (CATI) as part of a larger assessment battery. Correlations were computed between the GAS total score and the 14 PD scales from the CATI. Results: Results showed that anxiety was significantly and positively associated with all 14 PD scales. Specifically, as expected, the schizotypal (.52), paranoid (.55), avoidant (.56), obsessive-compulsive (.60), dependent (.62), and borderline (.69) PD scales were all significantly positively associated with anxiety. The remaining 8 PD scales also showed strong, positive correlations with anxiety: sadistic (.27), antisocial (.28), schizoid (.32), histrionic (.42), narcissistic (.44), passive-aggressive (.59), self-defeating (.64), and depressive (.69). Discussion: These results indicate that anxiety and abnormal personality traits are highly associated, showing a strong comorbidity. An implication is that PDs may play a role in the development of anxiety, or vice versa. Longitudinal studies are needed to clarify temporal and causative relationships.


Author(s):  
S.P.J. van Alphen ◽  
S.M.J. Heijnen-Kohl

Personality disorders severely impact a person’s functioning in many ways. Although a person may have found ways to cope throughout life, at an older age underlying dysfunctional patterns can emerge and cause much distress both for the person and those around them. Why normal personality traits shift to abnormality is not easily understood. In literature there are many theories with different definitions. In this chapter a few of the prominent theories on the description of personality will be discussed. For example, some psychologists have described personality as a complex pattern that is deeply tied to psychological characteristics that are largely unaware, hard to wipe out, and expressed in all aspects of functioning. Other psychologists define personality as individual differences in the tendency to display consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The American Psychiatric Association (2013) defines personality traits as enduring patterns in the way someone perceives, relates to, and thinks about the environment and oneself and that these patterns are exhibited in a wide range of social and personal context. These definitions of personality are all concerned with unique and stable characteristics in different situations. These theories are not age-specific, but age-related changes and differences in manifestations do occur. This complicates diagnosis as measurements for older adults have barely been developed or validated. The feasibility of measurements and various information sources will be addressed. Descriptions and diagnosis have the ability to enhance treatment for patients with personality disorders. Known treatment forms have successfully been applied to older adults as well and differing treatment levels will be distinguished. Treatment of first choice can be aimed at changing personality characteristics or enhancing adaptation, but in some cases supportive treatment is the best fit. In clinical practice a variety of possible interventions is needed to provide the best care for different manifestations of personality disorders.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 1071-1077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Segal ◽  
Juliana Gottschling ◽  
Meghan Marty ◽  
William J. Meyer ◽  
Frederick L. Coolidge

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua R. Oltmanns ◽  
Thomas A. Widiger

Personality traits predict physical health outcomes including health behaviors, health perceptions, disease, and mortality. Maladaptive traits of personality disorders may predict even more variance in physical health indicators. Dimensional models of maladaptive personality traits are replacing categorical models of personality disorder, and the five-factor model of personality disorder (FFMPD) is a useful dimensional model of maladaptive traits. However, there has been little work investigating the criterion validity of the FFMPD. The present study serves as a broad initial overview of the FFMPD scales in the prediction of health behaviors, heath perceptions, and insomnia symptoms across two timepoints in a representative community sample of older adults (N = 1,060). Findings indicate that the FFMPD scales explain a significant amount of variance in the physical health variables across time. Exploratory analyses indicate that the FFMPD traits have incremental validity over covariates, normal-range personality traits, and personality disorder criteria.


2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 1871-1878 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Hopwood ◽  
M. B. Donnellan ◽  
M. C. Zanarini

BackgroundRecent research suggests the utility of distinguishing temperamental and acute symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Temperamental symptoms, such as chronic anger and odd thinking, remit relatively slowly and have been hypothesized to reflect a hyperbolic predisposition to emotional pain and negativistic cognitions, whereas acute symptoms, such as substance abuse and chaotic relationships, remit relatively quickly and have been hypothesized to represent the consequences of maladaptations to triggering environmental events.MethodThe relationships of temperamental and acute BPD symptoms with normal personality traits and stability and dynamic associations over time across these symptom sets were tested in a 10-year longitudinal study of 362 patients with personality disorders.ResultsTemperamental symptoms were associated with high neuroticism, whereas acute symptoms were associated with low agreeableness. These symptoms had similar rank-order stabilities and relative changes in symptom sets were reciprocally linked in a cross-lagged path model suggesting dynamic associations between temperamental and acute symptoms over time.ConclusionsThe distinction between temperamental and acute BPD symptoms is supported by differential relations of these symptom sets to normal personality traits. Moreover, these symptoms appear to be linked in a mutually reinforcing dynamic over time. This distinction should be kept in mind in future studies of the aetiology of BPD and in diagnostic and treatment considerations.


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