Personality disorders and physical comorbidities: a complex relationship.

Purpose Of Review: It is not uncommon for clinicians to label patients' complaints as 'psychogenic' when they present with symptoms that are difficult to understand. This article reviews recent reports about the comorbidity of personality disorders and nonpsychiatric medical problems, which call into question the adequacy of the mind-body dichotomy in medicine.

Recent Findings: The strong association of any personality disorders with poor health in cross-sectional and community-based studies is now confirmed by personality disorder predicting future deterioration in longitudinal studies. Borderline personality disorder has been studied most frequently, but recent data suggest that severity of any personality disorder is associated with poor and worsening health.

Summary: Personality disorder is associated with the full range of physical, mental, and social disorders. Greater attention to the common features of personality disorders, which are crucial for the self-regulation of behavior, would facilitate more effective health promotion and disease prevention across all medical specialties, thereby helping to relieve the burdens of chronic common diseases.