[Prevalence and familiarity of personality disorders in Germany: results of the Greifswald family study].
BACKGROUND
There are only few data about the prevalence and familiarity of personality disorders (PD) in population based samples in Germany. Moreover, nearly no information exists for the prevalence of PDs among young adults. Thus, in the current study we examined the prevalence, familiarity and psychopathology of PDs, whereby middle-aged adults (about 45 years old) as well as the adult children of these persons (about 20 years old) were examined.


METHODS
Participants were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for Personality Disorders (SCID-II) which is based on the DSM-IV criteria for PDs and with the SCL-90. The sample consisted of 411 parents and their adolescent children (n=334).


RESULTS
The prevalence for PDs was 11.2% in the parent sample and 14.7% in the adolescent sample. Cluster-B personality disorders (Cluster-B-PDs) were more often diagnosed in the adolescent sample, in particular. Moreover, we did find an elevated risk for children of parents with a PD than for children of parents without a PD to develop a PD where the former group also displayed elevated values with regard to their psychopathology.


CONCLUSIONS
This study underlines the importance of PDs in community-based samples. The implications of our findings for treatment and classification of PDs are discussed.
Barnow
Sven
S
Arbeitseinheit Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie am Psychologischen Institut der Ruprechts-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. sven.barnow@psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de
Stopsack
Malte
M
Ulrich
Ines
I
Falz
Susanne
S
Dudeck
Manuela
M
Spitzer
Carsten
C
Grabe
Hans-J
HJ
Freyberger
Harald Jürgen
HJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005190:Family; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D010556:Personality Tests; D055815:Young Adult