Question

After reading Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (pp. 733-837) in the DSM, compare and contrast the 10 personality disorders you learned about last week to the Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders. Would you support this new approach? Elaborate on your thoughts about whether you agree or disagree with the new approach.

Histronic Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Avoidant Personality Disorder

Narcassistic Personality Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Dependent Personality Disorder

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Answer 1

The DSM was developed as a means to simplify disease classification. Upon reading the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (pp. 733-837) in the DSM, it is known that a designated number of criteria should be fulfilled in order to be diagnosed for any of the 10 personality disorders.
The Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders requires the disorder to be classified based on the dimension, a cluster of behaviors that have been divided into three clusters:

1. Cluster A: Odd-Eccentric
2. Cluster B: Dramatic-Emotional
3. Cluster C: Anxious-Fearful

The problem with the previous DSM model was that there was a yes or no answer to the diagnosis without considering the severity of the illness. Whereas the alternative DSM-5 requires the following criteria as the baseline:

1) moderate or greater impairment in personality functioning (There is a threshold defined.)
2) the presence of pathological personality traits.

The DSM-5 models also allow the evaluator to rule out disorders, this was not the case in the earlier standard.

The following disorders have been retained:

1. Borderline Personality Disorder
2. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
3. Avoidant Personality Disorder
4. Schizotypal Personality Disorder
5. Antisocial Personality Disorder
6. Narcissistic Personality Disorder

These require more clinical trials and research and are retained to come up with better standards. The other disorders have overlapping traits and criteria along with threshold can be obtained with the vast amount of research that has gone into them.

Yes, I agree with this new approach. On paper and upon reading the voices of clinicians, there has been more support to the DSM-5. It seems to make things simpler than the previous standard by reducing the number of criteria along with some kind of quantitative measure for diagnosis. There is also a method to prioritize illnesses thereby making treatment more effective.