Personality disorders: Prevalence and demography at a psychiatric outpatient in North India

Abstract

Background: Even though personality disorders are common among psychiatric populations, the data from India on their prevalence and demography are sparse.

Aim: To profile the prevalence and demography of personality disorders in North India.

Methods: The retrospective study was based on patients attending the outpatient of a general hospital psychiatric centre in North India between June 1996 and June 2006. The specified data were collected from the case records of those receiving a primary or comorbid ICD-10 diagnosis of a personality disorder.

Results: Personality disorders had a prevalence of 1.07%, with a preponderance of those aged 21–40 years (69.4%), men (64.9%), employed and students (37.3% and 32.8% respectively), unmarried (56%), graduates and undergraduates (27.6% each), and referred by the family (68.7%). The most common personality disorders were anxious-avoidant and borderline. Compared with the anxious-avoidant group, the borderline group was younger (mean age 24.44 vs 29.66 years) and had a preponderance of females (60% vs 27.1%).

Conclusion: The prevalence of personality disorders among the psychiatric outpatients was low compared to most of the research literature reporting clinically diagnosed personality disorders. The differences between the borderline and anxious-avoidant personality disorder subjects were largely explained by interrelated demographic variables.