Table 1. DSM-IV general criteria for personality disorder.

An enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviour deviating markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture as manifested in two (or more) of the following areas: cognition (perception and interpretation of self, others and events) affect (the range, intensity, lability and appropriateness of emotional response) interpersonal functioning impulse control The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations The enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning The pattern is stable and of long duration and its onset can be traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood The enduring pattern is not better accounted for as a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder The enduring pattern is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g. head trauma)