Personality disorders are pervasive, life-long patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about others that cause significant functional impairment and/or subjective distress.
Personality disorders can coexist with and complicate the diagnosis and management of other psychiatric disorders.
The development of personality disorders has been linked to deficits in the childhood environment. Constitutional factors may also play a role.
Because of the rigid way in which people with personality disorders cope with living, they are very vulnerable to breaking down under stress. To adapt to the losses, role changes, and dependency that come with aging is particularly difficult for this population.
The demands of institutional living cause ingrained behavior patterns to surface and because these residents are unaware of their contribution to their problems, they will blame caregivers for all that goes wrong.
If the powerful impact of these behavior patterns on staff is not understood, it can interfere with clinical judgment, team functioning and the resident's care.
Setting realistic treatment goals involves accepting the resident's limitations and working within these limitations to promote the optimal coexistence of the resident with others in the institution. Improving communication at various levels applying behavior management strategies and occasionally using psychoactive medications and/or formal psychotherapy are important aspects of a comprehensive approach to management.
This website is provided for information and education purposes only. No doctor/patient relationship has been established by the use of this site. No diagnosis or treatment is being provided. The information contained here should be used in consultation with a physician of your choice. No guarantees or warranties are made regarding any of the information contained within this website. This website is not intended to offer specific medical or surgical advice to anyone. Our physicians are licensed to practice in Georgia and Louisiana, and this website is not intended to solicit patients from other states. Further, this website takes no responsibility for web sites hyper-linked to this site and such hyper-linking does not imply any relationships or endorsements of the linked sites.
