Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153:1089-1091
Copyright © 1996 by American Psychiatric Association
Gender differences in personality disorders in psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents
CM Grilo, DF Becker, DC Fehon, ML Walker, WS Edell and TH McGlashan
Yale Psychiatric Institute, New Haven, CT 06520-8038, USA.
OBJECTIVE: The authors examined gender differences in DSM-III-R personality
disorders in adolescent psychiatric inpatients. METHODS: Structured
diagnostic interviews were reliably performed with a series of 138
consecutively admitted adolescent inpatients. To reduce variability due to
heterogeneity of axis I diagnoses, a subgroup of 87 patients with major
depression was retested for gender differences. RESULTS: Females were
significantly more likely than males to meet the criteria for borderline
personality disorder. Narcissistic personality disorder was diagnosed only
in males. A similar pattern was observed in the subgroup of patients with
major depression. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest potentially important
gender differences in personality disorders in adolescent inpatients.
