Clinician-Rated ICD-11 Trait Domains and Personality Disorder Types

The International Classification of Diseases (11th edition; ICD-11) has adopted a classification of personality disorders (PDs) that abolishes the established International Classification of Diseases (10th edition; ICD-10) PD types in favor of global severity and stylistic trait domain specifiers. The goal of the current study was to describe the empirical relationship between traditional PD types and the ICD-11 trait domains, which is anticipated to inform and guide clinicians in this profound transition. A total of 246 patients were rated by their clinicians. The Informant-Personality Inventory for ICD-11 was used to rate ICD-11 trait domains while PD types were assigned categorically according to ICD-10. Empirical associations were investigated by means of bivariate correlation and logistic regression analyses with bootstrapping. Results overall showed expected and conceptually meaningful associations between ICD-11 trait domains and categorical ICD-10 PD types, with only a few unexpected deviations. Findings suggest that ICD-11 trait domains capture stylistic features of the established PD types in a conceptually coherent manner. These findings may facilitate continuity and guide translation between categorical PD types (i.e., ICD-10 and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [fifth edition]) and the new ICD-11 classification in mental health care. Future research should seek to replicate these findings in various clinical settings while also integrating the essential PD severity classification.