Compulsive Personality Disorder

August 20, 2011

Hoarding has broad-reaching implications, including a substantial public health burden linked to occupational impairment, poor physical health, and demand for social services.

April 15, 2009

The co-occurrence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) and psychotic illness has been a challenge for clinicians and investigators for more than a century. Over the past decade, interest in this area has burgeoned because of recognition of higher-than-chance comorbidity rates of schizophrenia and OCD.

November 01, 2008

DSM-IV-TR, our current diagnostic classification system of psychiatric disorders, follows the diagnostic paradigm first established by DSM-III in 1980.

July 02, 2008

A review of targeted treatment strategies for symptom domains when impulsivity and compulsivity become dysfunctional.

February 01, 2008

The idea that there may be genetic influences on how we think about God and politics is usually greeted with disbelief, even scorn. "Ludicrous," was the intense response of a distinguished psychologist-friend upon hearing me explore this topic in a brief paper.

November 01, 2007

Many of the things that we busy ourselves with have no apparent utility. Blogging, playing games, and collecting come to mind. To declare that we are compelled to do these things may be too strong, but we do pursue these activities with little deliberation and without concern as to their usefulness. The ubiquity of these pursuits suggests that these activities or their variants helped humans survive at some point and that they now rest on innate brain programs.

August 01, 2007

Epidemiological studies report a lifetime prevalence rate of 24.9% for (any) anxiety disorder. Feelings of anxiety can also be related to normal fear of pain, loneliness, ridicule, illness, injury, grief, or death. In both these types of situations, anxiety can be difficult to deal with. Consequently, benzodiazepines, which offer almost immediate symptomatic relief for anxiety, can be quite appealing to many persons.

August 25, 2006

DSM-IV-TR emphasizes that patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show a "instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts," and any five out of nine listed criteria must be present for the diagnosis to be made.

July 02, 2006

A discussion of the epidemiology, assessment, diagnostic dilemmas, and treatment of avoidant personality disorder.

May 01, 2005

Diagnosis of the two main major eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, can be difficult because of denial of symptomatology by the patients and problems with some of the diagnostic criteria. Although CBT has been the most effective, there are no treatments available that can guarantee a cure for either disorder. Medication is only a helpful adjunct to the treatment of anorexia, while many controlled studies that show antidepressant medications are effective in reducing binge/purge behavior in bulimia.