THE TRIDIMENSIONAL PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR SCREENING PERSONALITY-DISORDERS - USE IN PATIENTS WITH GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER

Forty-eight patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) were admi nistered the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), and then they were interviewed by the means of the Structured Clinical Intervie w for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders (SCID-II). Agreement between the two instruments about absence of personality disorder (PD) was found in 30 patients, There were only 3 patients who were diagnosed with a P D on the basis of the TPQ scores but did not receive a SCID-II diagnos is of PD, The TPQ appears to have high sensitivity in detecting person ality disorders (PDs) among GAD patients and it might be a useful scre ening instrument for PDs in patients with anxiety disorders in general . The paper also compares results of the two approaches to PD assessme nt in GAD patients: dimensional, as embodied in the TPQ; and categoric al, as represented by the SCID-II and DSM-III-R.