[Diagnosis and classification of personality disorders in adolescence - how can current research findings contribute to an understanding of this construct?].

Objective: The diagnosis and classification of personality disorders in adolescence remains a controversially discussed topic.

Method: This review reports recent research findings on the comorbidity and the diagnosis of personality disorders in adolescence and on their neurobiological and neuropsychological correlates.

Results: On the one hand, the latest research findings refer to the implication that personality disorders in adolescence can be reliably diagnosed with the existing instruments used in the diagnosis of adults. On the other hand, researchers criticize the lack of a youth-specific concept of assessment, which could be used as a common foundation to study this clinically so relevant disorder.

Conclusions: Diagnostic as well as longitudinal studies within the scope of networks are required in order to differentiate personality disorders in adolescence from other youth-related disorders.