文档介绍：Psychiatr Clin N Am 31 (2008) xi–xii
PSYCHIATRIC CLINICS
OF NORTH AMERICA
Preface
Joel Paris, MD
Guest Editor
esearch in personality disorders is moving forward rapidly. This issue of
the Psychiatric Clinics of North America summarizes the advancing edge
R of our knowledge.
The first question concerns how to diagnose personality disorders. Much ink
has been spent on this subject. On the one hand, disorders may be pathologic
exaggerations of normal personality traits. For this reason some have suggested
that the current Axis II categories be replaced with dimensional scores (see
article by Widiger and Lowe). We need to establish a clearer boundary be-
tween normal and abnormal personality patterns (see article by Wakefield).
On the other hand, several of the existing categories show symptoms not seen
in normal people, such as the chronic suicidality of patients who have border-
line personality. Moreover, most of the research described in this issue is based
on categories. It remains important that both antisocial personality (or psychop-
athy) and borderline personality have large and important research traditions
of their own.
A second research question concerns the prevalence of personality disorders.
Recent years have seen a large number of epidemiologic studies, all of which
suggest that personality disorders are mon munity populations
(see article by Lenzenweger). Personality disorders are even mon in
clinical populations, even if they often go unrecognized (see article by Zimmer-
man, Chelminski, and Young).
A third question concerns the etiology of personality disorders. Although
much remains unknown, researchers are chipping away at these problems.
Approaches include ic studies (see article by Reichborn-Kjennrud), imag-
ing studies (see articles by New, Goodman, Triebwasser, and Siever and by
Glenn and Raine). Another important research method involves longitudinal
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