Gender differences in personality disorders in psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents

Abstract

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.