title: Social workers' ratings of comorbid personality disorders in substance abusers.
abstract: Clinical diagnoses of personality disorders have been discredited in the literature. However, the artificial dichotomization of dimensions, along with the constraint of having to select only one or a few diagnoses, may have limited the ability of clinical judgment to converge with other clinician's judgments, or with relevant external criteria. Assessment with a dimensional approach to personality disorders may provide improved agreement. In this study, substance abusers were rated by two different staff members involved in their treatment. Inter-rater agreement was moderately high for paranoid, schizotypal, antisocial, and borderline personality disorder, and high-moderate discriminant validity was found for all personality disorders except schizoid and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, University of Aarhus, Købmagergade 26E, 2., Copenhagen 1150, Denmark. hesse@medscape.com
authors.forename: Morten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hesse
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003718:Denmark; D017831:Diagnosis, Dual (Psychiatry); D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D012947:Social Work / Q000592:standards*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*