Personality disorders in a group of psychiatric outpatients: general aspects and cluster B characteristics.

BACKGROUND

Personality disorders are common among patients seeking psychiatric care and often coexist with axis I disorders. Cluster B types are reported as being the most common in those patients. They are often correlated with specific demographic features, higher rates of axis I comorbidity and impaired outcome.

AIM

This study aimed to describe general and clinical features of personality disorders types in a Tunisian outpatient psychiatric unit and to determine characteristics of cluster B personality types, compared to those of cluster A and C.

METHODS

This study was held in Sousse psychiatric outpatient unit, from January 2000 to December 2004. 148 cases were retrospectively recruited and assessed according to axis I and axis II DSM-IV criteria.

RESULTS

Personality disorders prevalence was 6%. 85.1% of patients had at least one current axis I disorder, which mainly consisted of depressive disorder (42.3%). Cluster B types were the most frequent (54.7%). Comorbid addictive and somatoform disorders were more frequent in cluster B. Anxiety disorders were more frequent in cluster C and psychotic disorders were more frequent in cluster A.

CONCLUSION

Our results show prevalence and clinical profile of personality disorders in a Tunisian clinical population. Cluster B types were the most frequent and seem to have specific comorbid disorders. This support the idea that patients with cluster B personality types need adapted psychiatric care.