Korean J Psychopharmacol.
2005 May;16(3):208-224.
Pharmacological Treatment for Personality Disorders
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Psychiatry, Dankook University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Korea. kcpaik@kornet.net
Abstract
- Up to now, it has been a prevailing concept that psychotherapy rather than pharmacotherpy is the main treatment modality for personality disorders. The use of medication to treat personality disorders has been derived from the recent confluence of anecdotal experience, a growing body of controlled studies and emerging evidence of the presence of psychobiological traits that may underlie personality disorders. Antipsychotics may be helpful for cluster A personality disorders, while antiserotonergic agents may be useful in improving mood and impulsivity for cluster B personality disorders. However data on the utility of antipsychotics and mood stabilizers are inconsistent. There have been very few studies done for cluster C personality disorders. The big problem lies in the fact that there is no consensus yet on the more fundamental areas of therapy such as classification of personality disorders, reliable measuring instruments, the relationship between axis I and axis II disorders, ruling out the effect of psychotherapy, and so on. This study reviewed the principal problems regarding the results of pharmacological treatment research of personality disorders in order to shed light on the future research directions in this area.
