Dramatic-erratic personality disorder symptoms: I. Continuity from early adolescence into adulthood

This longitudinal study examined dramatic-erratic personality disorder symp toms (histrionic, borderline, and narcissistic symptoms) in a community sam ple of 407 adolescents to assess whether this diagnostic construct is meani ngful in young people. Based on latent variable models and dimensional symp tom scales, these so-called Cluster B symptoms were highly stable across an eight-year interval from early adolescence to early adulthood. Furthermore , when compared with internalizing and externalizing symptoms, dramatic-err atic symptoms were more stable over time than these well-established Axis I symptom clusters. Based on high correlations with co-occurring internalizi ng and externalizing symptoms, Cluster B symptoms clearly reflect emotional distress during adolescence. These analyses reinforce recent efforts to es tablish personality disorders as a clinically significant and valid diagnos tic construct in young people.