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Treating patients with two or more personality disorders: an introduction
Author(s) -
Dimaggio Giancarlo,
Norcross John C.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.20447
Subject(s) - terminology , comorbidity , personality disorders , psychology , personality , session (web analytics) , psychotherapist , clinical psychology , psychiatry , psychoanalysis , philosophy , linguistics , world wide web , computer science
A high percentage of patients diagnosed with one personality disorder (PD) have, at the same time, at least one other PD. However, psychotherapists lack clinical guidance and research evidence on treating such complex patients. This issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology : In Session attempts to bridge the gap. In this Introduction, the editors outline the subsequent articles in this issue and address the terminology, prevalence, and possible causes of Axis II comorbidity. They argue that comorbidity is, in part, ascribable to problems in classification systems and can be reduced by defining PDs in a more multifaceted manner. They provide several clinical vignettes to portray frequent difficulties encountered by psychotherapists in treating these complex, co‐occurrent cases. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 64: 1–12, 2008.