title: Dramatic-erratic personality disorder symptoms: I. Continuity from early adolescence into adulthood.
abstract: This longitudinal study examined dramatic-erratic personality disorder symptoms (histrionic, borderline, and narcissistic symptoms) in a community sample of 407 adolescents to assess whether this diagnostic construct is meaningful in young people. Based on latent variable models and dimensional symptom scales, these so-called Cluster B symptoms were highly stable across an eight-year interval from early adolescence to early adulthood. Furthermore, when compared with internalizing and externalizing symptoms, dramatic-erratic symptoms were more stable over time than these well-established Axis I symptom clusters. Based on high correlations with co-occurring internalizing and externalizing symptoms, Cluster B symptoms clearly reflect emotional distress during adolescence. These analyses reinforce recent efforts to establish personality disorders as a clinically significant and valid diagnostic construct in young people.
authors.affiliation: New York State Psychiatric Institute, USA. crawfor@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Brook
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors