Comorbidity among the personality disorders in DSM-III-R

The aim of the present study was to elucidate the presence of comorbidity among the separate personality disorders (PD) in DSM-III-R. By means of a modified version of the SCID Screen questionnaire, data concerning 95 reported criteria for PD were collected from 176 controls and 388 patients. Eighty-five Ss had a Cluster A personality disorder; 91.8% of the Ss had only one PD within the Cluster. However, the number of criteria fulfilled for the three PD correlated significantly ( r = 0.29−0.65). One-hundred and eighteen Ss had a Cluster B PD, 73.7% had only one Cluster B PD. The intercorrelations between number of criteria fulfilled were all significant ( r = 0.30−0.57). One-hundred and twenty-seven Ss had a Cluster C PD. Only 65.4% had only one PD within the Cluster. All intercorrelations between number of fulfilled criteria were significant ( r = 0.39−0.66). Altogether 198 Ss had at least one PD. Only 52.0% had a PD within only one of the Clusters. Thus the comorbidity between the three Clusters is even higher then the comorbidity within the Clusters.