title: A prototype matching approach to diagnosing personality disorders: toward DSM-V.
abstract: The current diagnostic system for personality disorders (PD) has a number of problems that may require a thorough revision for DSM-V. This article (a) outlines problems with the current taxonomy that suggest the need for a different approach to PD diagnosis that preserves the strengths of the current system while addressing some inherent weaknesses; (b) discusses key issues that must be addressed in moving toward DSM-V, such as revising the distinction between Axis I and Axis II and combining categorical and dimensional diagnosis; and (c) describes a prototype matching approach to diagnosis, which we believe has the potential to be both psychometrically sound and faithful to the clinical data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Hospital, USA. dwesten@bu.edu
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Westen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shedler
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011379:Prognosis; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results