Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:786-795
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
The DSM-III-R personality disorders: an overview
TA Widiger, A Frances, RL Spitzer and JB Williams
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0044.
The revision of DSM-III (DSM-III-R) includes substantial changes in the
axis II personality disorders. The authors present and critically review
these revisions and suggest directions for further research. The issues
discussed include the multiaxial system, the use of a categorical rather
than a dimensional format, the change from monothetic to polythetic
criteria sets, the reduction in overlap among criteria sets, the decrease
in the amount of unnecessary inferential clinical judgment required to make
diagnoses, and the addition of two new personality disorders in an
appendix. The criteria sets for many of the DSM-III personality disorders
were also substantially revised in DSM-III-R. Changes in each of these are
discussed in turn.
