1 in 5 young adults has personality disorder (20%!)

Dark Knight

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CHICAGO – Almost one in five young American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life, and even more abuse alcohol or drugs, researchers reported Monday in the most extensive study of its kind.

The disorders include problems such as obsessive or compulsive tendencies and anti-social behavior that can sometimes lead to violence.

The study also found that fewer than 25 percent of college-aged Americans with mental problems get treatment.

One expert said personality disorders may be overdiagnosed. But others said the results were not surprising since previous, less rigorous evidence has suggested mental problems are common on college campuses and elsewhere.

Experts praised the study's scope — face-to-face interviews about numerous disorders with more than 5,000 young people ages 19 to 25 — and said it spotlights a problem college administrators need to address.

Study co-author Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute called the widespread lack of treatment particularly worrisome. He said it should alert not only "students and parents, but also deans and people who run college mental health services about the need to extend access to treatment."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081202/ap_on_he_me/med_mental_health;_ylt=AmBnbZuIK5js0eaIAAoIWNms0NUE
 
Wow! I wonder how much of that can be exponentially applied to the general population? Personality disorders are hard to treat, so it would be interesting to know if over the years the participants in this study had their symptoms intensify or lessen. Perhaps the environment of college, being away from home for the first time, etc... enhances these traits in some of these young adults. Hmm, fascinating... now off to read the entire article to see if some of my questions are answered there! Probably should have done that first!
 
"One expert said personality disorders may be overdiagnosed."

I am gonna go with this statement....Let's apply common sense for a moment and consider what stages of development you are in when you are a "young adult." In our current society you have carte blanche to sow your wild oats and live with your parents for the most part-as opposed to our parents and grandparents who were expected to be wage earners and raising families....shakin my head here in MA.
 
I agree w/ believe09.
My fourth period class is FULL of kids who've been "diagnosed" with this, that, and the other thing. I don't see anything that appears abnormal behavior. They are all spoiled, self-involved teenagers! :D
Even though they are low-income, they all have iPods, cell phones, Xboxes, etc. . . .They have never/rarely been told, "no," and occasionally throw tantrums when they don't get their way. Other teachers write them up or send them to the office. When I just laugh at them and tell 'em how it is, they treat me with respect and more than one of them has told my that my class is their favorite class!
Kids are just being raised w/ few-to-no limits. This creates problems.
I have had true bi-polar students, and--WOW--do they ever have it rough. I love them, but you can tell that there are serious problems/issues in their lives.
 
Pandora - I agree with you completely. I work at a community college and the students have no self-discipline. They have been through high school where they did not have to perform in order to be passed to the next grade. Plus K-12 sports where everyone got a prize has not helped these kids at all because now they have no reason to strive for achievement as everyone gets the same. The students here EXPECT a lot of help and hand-holding, they do not know how to do research, they do not meet deadlines. I don't think this is because of personality disorders but lack of discipline thoughtout their lives. Jobs are not important to them... they are basically lazy because they never had to work for anything. They expect everything to just slide along.
 
CHICAGO – Almost one in five young American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life [...]
[respectfully snipped]

So, personality disorders are the new dx du-jour? Figures. Btw, and fwiw, personality disorders, by their very definition, interferes with everyday life. From the DSM-IV-TR:

"A Personality Disorder is an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early childhood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment." (p 685)
Otherwise put, personality disorders involve characteristics that all of us have to one extent or the other. What differentiates a personality disordered individual from the general population is that the characteristics tend toward the extreme, must interfere with everyday living, and must cause some degree of pain and suffering. Moreover, they must be "permanent" as opposed to "transient" in nature.

As for the claim touted in this article? A good dose of healthy skepticism is warranted when "researchers" make such bold and far-reaching claims (i.e., "20% of American Adults are personality disordered.") Furthermore, if their claim is even remotely accurate, I would argue that the DSM diagnostic criteria is seriously flawed. And then, I would point to articles, such as...
Wrangling over psychiatry's bible
By Christopher Lane
LA Times
November 16, 2008
URL: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lane16-2008nov16,0,5678764.story

"Behind the dispute about transparency is the question of whether the vague, open-ended terms being discussed even come close to describing real psychiatric disorders. To large numbers of experts, apathy, compulsive shopping and parental alienation are symptoms of psychological conflict rather than full-scale mental illnesses in their own right. Also, because so many participants in the process of defining new disorders have ties to pharmaceutical companies, some critics argue that the addition of new disorders to the manual is little more than a pretext for prescribing profitable drugs."
And...
The Dictionary of Disorder
How one man revolutionized psychiatry
by Alix Spiegel
New Yorker
January 3, 2005
URL: http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/050103fa_fact

"Robert Spitzer isn’t widely known outside the field of mental health, but he is, without question, one of the most influential psychiatrists of the twentieth century. It was Spitzer who took the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—the official listing of all mental diseases recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.)—and established it as a scientific instrument of enormous power.

[...]

Because there are very few records of the process, it’s hard to pin down exactly how Spitzer and his staff determined which mental disorders to include in the new manual and which to reject. Spitzer seems to have made many of the final decisions with minimal consultation.

[...]

As a general rule, though, Spitzer was more interested in including mental disorders than in excluding them. "Bob never met a new diagnosis that he didn't at least get interested in," Frances says. "Anything, however against his own leanings that might be, was a new thing to play with, a new toy."
Sadly, in our altruistic desire to destigmatize mental illnesses, we seem to be moving increasingly towards a pill-popping society who defines ourselves by "psychiatric labels" all the while wondering why the concept of "personal responsibility" has become the exception as opposed to the rule.
 
shadowraiths ~ I loved your entire post! For so long, people were underdiagnosed and hide their mental problems. Now we've gone too far the other way. Everybody seems to have some sort of mental illness and needs to be medicated. My favorite is ADHD in children now. How often do these kids get to go outside and play to burn off energy? Are they playing sports, or sitting in front of video games/the computer all the time. If a kid doesn't have the opportunity to burn off energy, they're going to be hyper! Granted, there are definately children who have ADHD and need to be medicated, but not nearly as many as are currently being dianosed.

Okay, sorry, this is just one of my hot topics and I thought shadowraiths summed things up very well.
 
well 1 in 5 of my young adult sons (ages 17 to 26) has a disorder. :)
 
I think 1 in 5 seems like a pretty reasonable estimate counting in anxiety, possible eating disorders, OCD, etc. The article says that about half (student and non-student alike) have psychiatric conditions if they count in substance abuse such as booze or drugs.
 
Shadowraiths, good post! The pharmaceuticals companies have everything to gain by all the pill popping, and our future leaders have everything to lose. Personal responsibility is key.

Many of you had good points about spoiled youth who have a lack of self-discipline. That's sure the truth!

There are some people out there who have true disorders. Take Casey Anthony for instance. There aren't nearly as many, though, as the pharmaceutical companies would have you believe.
 
I think 1 in 5 seems like a pretty reasonable estimate counting in anxiety, possible eating disorders, OCD, etc. The article says that about half (student and non-student alike) have psychiatric conditions if they count in substance abuse such as booze or drugs.

If you factor in anxiety and eating disorders, etc., yes, that probably is accurate. However, the study states personality disorders. Anxiety, eating disorders, depression, etc. are not personality disorders. =)
 
................Sadly, in our altruistic desire to destigmatize mental illnesses, we seem to be moving increasingly towards a pill-popping society who defines ourselves by "psychiatric labels" all the while wondering why the concept of "personal responsibility" has become the exception as opposed to the rule.

:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:
 
shadowraiths ~ I loved your entire post! For so long, people were underdiagnosed and hide their mental problems. Now we've gone too far the other way. Everybody seems to have some sort of mental illness and needs to be medicated. My favorite is ADHD in children now. How often do these kids get to go outside and play to burn off energy? Are they playing sports, or sitting in front of video games/the computer all the time. If a kid doesn't have the opportunity to burn off energy, they're going to be hyper! Granted, there are definately children who have ADHD and need to be medicated, but not nearly as many as are currently being dianosed.

Okay, sorry, this is just one of my hot topics and I thought shadowraiths summed things up very well.

So true, Lyn! With all the advances in technology over the years; kids are more apt to sit in from of the computer, tv, play video games and don't get the outdoor exercise that a lot of us got decades ago.

While i do believe many a time doctors are too quick to diagnose (they want the pharm co.'s to pay them off); the younger generations do seem to want everything handed to them; more so than the older generations. A lot of factors could weight into it. The work ethic is lacking greatly. Those of you who have good children are blessed! A lot of mental illness can be genetically predisposed and we have to think if more people are having disorders (not just ADD/ADHD) then they are having children who are also having disorders. Not to mention the state society is in.
Some children get things handed to them; then throw fits when they cannot just have things they want. They don't realize goals need to be worked for. They don't appreciate what they have as much, as they've not had to "earn" it.
Then we have the environmental factors as well... :doh: all the fast food (eating healthy makes for a better body and mind)... i could go on and on
 
[respectfully snipped]

So, personality disorders are the new dx du-jour? Figures. Btw, and fwiw, personality disorders, by their very definition, interferes with everyday life. From the DSM-IV-TR:
"A Personality Disorder is an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early childhood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment." (p 685)
Otherwise put, personality disorders involve characteristics that all of us have to one extent or the other. What differentiates a personality disordered individual from the general population is that the characteristics tend toward the extreme, must interfere with everyday living, and must cause some degree of pain and suffering. Moreover, they must be "permanent" as opposed to "transient" in nature.

As for the claim touted in this article? A good dose of healthy skepticism is warranted when "researchers" make such bold and far-reaching claims (i.e., "20% of American Adults are personality disordered.") Furthermore, if their claim is even remotely accurate, I would argue that the DSM diagnostic criteria is seriously flawed. And then, I would point to articles, such as...
Wrangling over psychiatry's bible
By Christopher Lane
LA Times
November 16, 2008
URL: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lane16-2008nov16,0,5678764.story

"Behind the dispute about transparency is the question of whether the vague, open-ended terms being discussed even come close to describing real psychiatric disorders. To large numbers of experts, apathy, compulsive shopping and parental alienation are symptoms of psychological conflict rather than full-scale mental illnesses in their own right. Also, because so many participants in the process of defining new disorders have ties to pharmaceutical companies, some critics argue that the addition of new disorders to the manual is little more than a pretext for prescribing profitable drugs."
And...
The Dictionary of Disorder
How one man revolutionized psychiatry
by Alix Spiegel
New Yorker
January 3, 2005
URL: http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/050103fa_fact

"Robert Spitzer isn’t widely known outside the field of mental health, but he is, without question, one of the most influential psychiatrists of the twentieth century. It was Spitzer who took the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—the official listing of all mental diseases recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.)—and established it as a scientific instrument of enormous power.

[...]

Because there are very few records of the process, it’s hard to pin down exactly how Spitzer and his staff determined which mental disorders to include in the new manual and which to reject. Spitzer seems to have made many of the final decisions with minimal consultation.

[...]

As a general rule, though, Spitzer was more interested in including mental disorders than in excluding them. "Bob never met a new diagnosis that he didn't at least get interested in," Frances says. "Anything, however against his own leanings that might be, was a new thing to play with, a new toy."
Sadly, in our altruistic desire to destigmatize mental illnesses, we seem to be moving increasingly towards a pill-popping society who defines ourselves by "psychiatric labels" all the while wondering why the concept of "personal responsibility" has become the exception as opposed to the rule.

And some posts on here show we have yet to destigmatize mental illness. Are we back in the 1940's with the pill popping stuff?
 
i think alot of these kids need to be treated like kids and do kid things .. when they dont listen they should get a smack on the fanny just like we did .. too many parents are scared to disipline their kids because of abuse laws .. and too many are too busy to work with that time out stuff .. and too tired .
 
I find the stats right in line, if not somewhat UNDERreported. I'm bipolar and have read for years that 20-25% of the population have suffered, in one form or another, from depression in the course of their lives.

Mind now, that's only bipolar disorder. Add ADHD, ADD, sociopathy, borderliner personality, etc., etc., and the stats may well be OVER the top.
 
I find the stats right in line, if not somewhat UNDERreported. I'm bipolar and have read for years that 20-25% of the population have suffered, in one form or another, from depression in the course of their lives.

Mind now, that's only bipolar disorder. Add ADHD, ADD, sociopathy, borderliner personality, etc., etc., and the stats may well be OVER the top.

Again, if you factor in Axis I disorders (depression, bi-polar, ADHD, etc.), that number probably IS under reported. HOWEVER, the study is regarding PERSONALITY disorders, which are Axis II disorders (along with developmental disorders) and include Borderline Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Schizoid Personality Disorder, etc. There is a difference between personality disorders and mood disorders. They are totally separate things.
 

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