Personality Disorders

Overview Neurologists and primary care doctors manage patients with a wide range of psychiatric disturbances to include personality disorders. The definition of a personality disorder encompasses individuals with interpersonal or psychosocial dysfunction that impairs their social or professional function. Personality disorders are common in the general population occurring in 1-2% of the adult population; however, these statistics are somewhat bounded by culture and socioeconomic variables. The patient with personality disorder may frustrate care, provoke the clinician or consume large amounts of the practitioner’s time. Comorbid substance abuse is common in persons with specific types of personality disorder creating the management problem of drug-seeking behavior, e.g., sociopaths. Personality is a complex mixture of affect, temperament, cognitive style, social skills, and impulse control. Personality is a mixture of brain biology and developmental experiences from childhood and adolescence.