Social workers' ratings of comorbid personality disorders in substance abusers.
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.
Hesse
Morten
M
Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, University of Aarhus, Købmagergade 26E, 2., Copenhagen 1150, Denmark. hesse@medscape.com
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*