Personality disorders: prevalence and demography at a psychiatric outpatient in North India

Even though personality disorders are common among psychiatric populations, the data from India on their prevalence and demography are sparse.

To profile the prevalence and demography of personality disorders in North India.

The retrospective study was based on patients attending the outpatient of a general hospital psychiatric centre in North India between June 1996 and June 2006. The specified data were collected from the case records of those receiving a primary or comorbid ICD-10 diagnosis of a personality disorder.

Personality disorders had a prevalence of 1.07%, with a preponderance of those aged 21-40 years (69.4%), men (64.9%), employed and students (37.3% and 32.8% respectively), unmarried (56%), graduates and undergraduates (27.6% each), and referred by the family (68.7%). The most common personality disorders were anxious-avoidant and borderline. Compared with the anxious-avoidant group, the borderline group was younger (mean age 24.44 vs 29.66 years) and had a preponderance of females (60% vs 27.1%).

The prevalence of personality disorders among the psychiatric outpatients was low compared to most of the research literature reporting clinically diagnosed personality disorders. The differences between the borderline and anxious-avoidant personality disorder subjects were largely explained by interrelated demographic variables.