1 in 5 young adults has personality disorder

[EasyEJL]

CHICAGO – Almost one in five young American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life, and even more abuse alcohol or drugs, researchers reported Monday in the most extensive study of its kind.

The disorders include problems such as obsessive or compulsive tendencies and anti-social behavior that can sometimes lead to violence. The study also found that fewer than 25 percent of college-aged Americans with mental problems get treatment.

One expert said personality disorders may be overdiagnosed. But others said the results were not surprising since previous, less rigorous evidence has suggested mental problems are common on college campuses and elsewhere.

Experts praised the study's scope — face-to-face interviews about numerous disorders with more than 5,000 young people ages 19 to 25 — and said it spotlights a problem college administrators need to address.

Study co-author Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute called the widespread lack of treatment particularly worrisome. He said it should alert not only "students and parents, but also deans and people who run college mental health services about the need to extend access to treatment."

Counting substance abuse, the study found that nearly half of young people surveyed have some sort of psychiatric condition, including students and non-students.

Personality disorders were the second most common problem behind drug or alcohol abuse as a single category. The disorders include obsessive, anti-social and paranoid behaviors that are not mere quirks but actually interfere with ordinary functioning.

The study authors noted that recent tragedies such as fatal shootings at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech have raised awareness about the prevalence of mental illness on college campuses.

They also suggest that this age group might be particularly vulnerable.

"For many, young adulthood is characterized by the pursuit of greater educational opportunities and employment prospects, development of personal relationships, and for some, parenthood," the authors said. These circumstances, they said, can result in stress that triggers the start or recurrence of psychiatric problems.

The study was released Monday in Archives of General Psychiatry. It was based on interviews with 5,092 young adults in 2001 and 2002, but the authors said the results probably hold true today.

The study was funded with grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the New York Psychiatric Institute.

Dr. Sharon Hirsch, a University of Chicago psychiatrist not involved in the study, praised it for raising awareness about the problem and the high numbers of affected people who don't get help.

Imagine if more than 75 percent of diabetic college students didn't get treatment, Hirsch said. "Just think about what would be happening on our college campuses."

The results highlight the need for mental health services to be housed with other medical services on college campuses, to erase the stigma and make it more likely that people will seek help, she said.

In the study, trained interviewers, but not psychiatrists, questioned participants about symptoms. They used an assessment tool similar to criteria doctors use to diagnose mental illness.

Dr. Jerald Kay, a psychiatry professor at Wright State University and chairman of the American Psychiatric Association's college mental health committee, said the assessment tool is considered valid and more rigorous than self-reports of mental illness. He was not involved in the study.

Personality disorders showed up in similar numbers among both students and non-students, including the most common one, obsessive compulsive personality disorder. About 8 percent of young adults in both groups had this illness, which can include an extreme preoccupation with details, rules, orderliness and perfectionism.

Kay said the prevalence of personality disorders was higher than he would expect and questioned whether the condition might be overdiagnosed.

All good students have a touch of "obsessional" personality that helps them work hard to achieve. But that's different from an obsessional disorder that makes people inflexible and controlling and interferes with their lives, he explained.

Obsessive compulsive personality disorder differs from the better known OCD, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, which features repetitive actions such as hand-washing to avoid germs.

OCD is thought to affect about 2 percent of the general population. The study didn't examine OCD separately but grouped it with all anxiety disorders, seen in about 12 percent of college-aged people in the survey.

The overall rate of other disorders was also pretty similar among college students and non-students.

Substance abuse, including drug addiction, alcoholism and other drinking that interferes with school or work, affected nearly one-third of those in both groups.

Slightly more college students than non-students were problem drinkers — 20 percent versus 17 percent. And slightly more non-students had drug problems — nearly 7 percent versus 5 percent.

In both groups, about 8 percent had phobias and 7 percent had depression.

Bipolar disorder was slightly more common in non-students, affecting almost 5 percent versus about 3 percent of students.

___

On the Net:

Archives of General Psychiatry: Archives of General Psychiatry, a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by AMA

[Omen]

What a crock of sh*t, how f**king convenient.

If you're not an obedient slave who sits completely still in high school, pu$$y out from every fight, love studying and think live is f**king dandy and you love every single person in this world, you need to be drugged.

Imagine if more than 75 percent of diabetic college students didn't get treatment, Hirsch said. "Just think about what would be happening on our college campuses."

Someone needs to give 100X dose of insulin to this guy to shut him up..

[EasyEJL]

I think about 40% of the people here have OCD

[Iron Lungz]

I think about 40% of the people here have OCD

I have it. Sad, but true.

[dsade]

I think about 40% of the people here have OCD

39.86738475%, to be precise.

/crap, did I lock the front door?

[HardTrainer]

...or obsessive-compulsive disorder, which features repetitive actions such as hand-washing to avoid germs.

So washing your hands is a disease now...?

[Omen]

So washing your hands is a disease now...?

They mean excessive like for no reason.

You eat chicken wings, so you wash your hands.....20 minutes later, you're washing them again......and again in 30 minutes...etc....

I honestly haven't washed my hands outside the shower in over a year............but if someone wants to do it 50 times a day....who am I to tell them it's not normal?

[Jayhawkk]

I'd have to agree with this paper.

[bigpoppapump2]

What a crock of sh*t, how f**king convenient.

If you're not an obedient slave who sits completely still in high school, pu$$y out from every fight, love studying and think live is f**king dandy and you love every single person in this world, you need to be drugged.



Someone needs to give 100X dose of insulin to this guy to shut him up..

agreed. Studies like this are stupid and unrelavant.

[nemo]

We're all a bunch of whackadoo's,... that's what makes us normal!!!

[Chub]

39.86738475%, to be precise.

/crap, did I lock the front door?

[Iron Lungz]

I would have to start a new thread for all the things that I have OCD about... seriously, I'm bad.

[gogo]

According to who? The man?

**** we better all go get medicated now!

[dsade]

I would have to start a new thread for all the things that I have OCD about... seriously, I'm bad.

Only one thread?

/amateur

[Iron Lungz]

Only one thread?

/amateur

With numerous bulletins and links to other pages...

[D3vildog]

Bipolar type 2 disorder right here. Fun times... but weight lifting helps me control the issues that i have with any occurences

[suncloud]

is pessimistic considered a disorder? if not i have doubts about this article...

[Force of Green]

According to who? The man?

**** we better all go get medicated now!

I don't think anyone reccommends all of us to seek medications. There are a lot of nutjobs and we can draw many from the populus of this message forum. We don't even know half of what is behind the screen on the other side.

[Hank Vangut]

i wonder which pharma company(s) helped fund that study?

[gogo]

i wonder which pharma company(s) helped fund that study?

So true.