Growth of the Literature on the Topic of Personality Disorders

• Published in: The American journal of psychiatry Vol. 157; no. 3; pp. 472 - 473
• Main Authors: Blashfield, Roger K., Intoccia, Vincent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychiatric Publishing 01-03-2000; American Psychiatric Association
• Subjects: Academic journals; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Alzheimer Disease - epidemiology; Biological and medical sciences; Growth rate; Humans; Medical research; Medical sciences; MEDLINE - statistics & numerical data; MEDLINE - trends; Mental disorders; Mental Disorders - diagnosis; Mental Disorders - epidemiology; Periodicals as Topic - statistics & numerical data; Periodicals as Topic - trends; Personality; Personality disorders; Personality Disorders - diagnosis; Personality Disorders - epidemiology; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Publishing - statistics & numerical data; Publishing - trends; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - epidemiology; Terminology as Topic; Human; Scientific literature; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual III; Criterion; Classification; Published document; Nosology; Review; Diagnosis; Comparative study; Personality disorder
• ISSN: 0002-953X; 1535-7228
• DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.157.3.472

OBJECTIVE: The authors assessed the growth of the literature on the topic of personality disorders before and after publication of DSM-III. METHOD: A MEDLINE search was conducted for journal articles concerning the personality disorders that were published from 1966 to 1995. RESULTS: Contrary to the authors' prediction, the growth of this literature was slower after the publication of DSM-III in 1980 than it was before that date. Other areas of psychopathology, such as Alzheimer's disease and posttraumatic stress disorder, have literatures whose growth rates since 1980 have exceeded their growth rates before publication of DSM-III. CONCLUSIONS: Over one-half of the individual personality disorders (e.g., histrionic and passive-aggressive) have either very small literatures or literatures with negative growth rates. Only three personality disorders (i.e., antisocial, borderline, and schizotypal) have modestly growing literatures.