Cumulative prevalence of personality disorders between adolescence and adulthood.

Objective: To investigate the cumulative prevalence of personality disorder (PD) among adults in the community, based on prospective longitudinal data from a series of psychiatric interviews.

Method: Psychiatric interviews were administered to a regionally representative community-based sample of 568 individuals in 1983 (mean age = 14), 1985-1986 (mean age = 16), 1991-1993 (mean age = 22), and 2001-2004 (mean age 33).

Results: The point prevalence of any current DSM-IV PD, including depressive PD and passive-aggressive PD, varied between 12.7% and 14.6% across the four diagnostic assessments. The cumulative prevalence of PD increased at each of the follow-up assessments. At mean age 33, the estimated lifetime prevalence of PD was 28.2%.

Conclusion: The cumulative prevalence of PD, based on a series of interviews conducted during adolescence and adulthood, may be substantially higher than the point prevalence of current PD based on a single assessment interview.