The tridimensional personality questionnaire as an instrument for screening personality disorders: Use in patients with generalized anxiety disorder

Abstract

Forty-eight patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) were administered the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), and then they were interviewed by the means of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders (SCID-II). Agreement between the two instruments about absence of personality disorder (PD) was found in 30 patients. There were only 3 patients who were diagnosed with a PD on the basis of the TPQ scores but did not receive a SCID-II diagnosis of PD. The TPQ appears to have high sensitivity in detecting personality disorders (PDs) among GAD patients and it might be a useful screening instrument for PDs in patients with anxiety disorders in general. The paper also compares results of the two approaches to PD assessment in GAD patients: dimensional, as embodied in the TPQ; and categorical, as represented by the SCID-II and DSM-III-R.