Title : Personality disorder and psychiatric comorbidities
Abstract:
Introduction: Personality disorders are common in the general population and are a major concern for hospital clinicians, given their comorbidity with other psychiatric and addictive disorders. The aims of our study were to describe the sociodemographic, clinical, and therapeutic characteristics of patients hospitalized for a personality disorder comorbid with another psychiatric disorder, and to describe the risk factors for suicidal behavior in patients with a group B personality disorder comorbid with another psychiatric disorder.
Patients and methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study conducted in the psychiatric department of Mahdia’s University Hospital, during a five-year period from January 1st, 2018, to December 31, 2022. We included all patients hospitalized during the study period whose diagnosis of personality disorder comorbid to a psychiatric disorder were retained according to DSM 5 diagnostic criteria.
Results: We have collected 93 patients. The average age of our patients was 34.6 years±12.282. More than half our patients were female (52%) and single (55.9%). Three quarts of our population were unemployed (74.2%). Two-thirds of our patients were of low income (65.6%) and of rural origin (62.4%). More than half of our patients (54.8%) were smokers, and alcohol and cannabis use were noted in 30.1% and 25.8% of cases respectively. A family history of psychiatric illness was noted in 36.6% of cases. Personal psychiatric history was present in 38.7% of cases. History of suicidal attempts were noted in 30.1% of cases and voluntary drug ingestion was the most frequently used method (18.3%). Judicial history was reported in 19.4% of patients. In almost half of the cases (47.3%), the reason for hospitalization was a suicidal attempt. The most common personality disorder was histrionic (38.7%). The comorbid diagnosis was adjustment disorder in 59.1% of cases. The most prescribed treatment was haloperidol decanoate (22.6%), followed by carbamazepine (17.2%) and olanzapine (17.2%). Fluoxetine was the most prescribed antidepressant in our patients (15.1%). At the outcome of the analytical study, 5 factors were significantly associated with suicidal behavior in group B personality disorder’s patients: secondary school level, presence of psychiatric history of characterized depressive disorder, presence of personal history of suicidal attempts, presence of hospitalization history and diagnosis of antisocial personality.
Conclusion: Our results are in line with those reported in the literature. Early screening for psychiatric disorders co-morbid with personality disorders improves quality of care and reduces the risk of suicide.
