Associations of past conduct disorder with personality disorders in 'non-psychotic' psychiatric inpatients

The aim was to investigate associations of a history of features of DSM-III-R conduct disorder (CD) with features of DSM-III-R personality disorders (PDs) and psychopathy, in inpatient psychiatric practice. Fifty-six psychiatric inpatients, without a history of specified 'psychoses', were assessed by the SCID structured interview for DSM-III-R PDs and the 'Psychopathy Checklist Revised' (PCL-R). In a sample in which 59% had borderline PD, significant associations between a history of CD criteria and the adult features of antisocial PD (APD) were relatively specific compared with other PDs, but were weaker in women. However, significant correlations between the number of positive CD criteria and PCL-R scores were similar in both genders. The relatively specific associations between CD and adult features of APD are likely to be relevant to psychiatric patients who show various presentations of PD, if these include some adult features of APD. The findings inform the understanding of the development and classification of PDs.