Paranoid personality disorder
Introduction
Paranoid personality disorder which is also known as PPD is a related mental disorder where a person who is diagnosed with it is always suspicious and lacks trust in other people and their motives. Paranoid personality disorder often starts during individuals’ catalyzed by the events during childhood. The paranoid personality disorder is often analyzed using DSM-IV-TR which stipulates the criteria for one to be declared to have the paranoid personality disorder. First, a person who always suspects with no proof that other people around him/her can hurt, deceive or exploit. Secondly, individuals with paranoid personality disorder are always distracted with the unjust doubts on their friends’ loyalty or trustworthiness. Thirdly, individuals with the disorder are always anti-social due to the fear of their information being poorly used against them. Additionally, the patients still bear grudges, always suspicious of their partners or spouses and always think their character is always under attack.
Type and Purpose of the study
This study is a randomized controlled trial type of research where the subjects will be put into groups when being tested. The study was undertaken to understand and assess the effectiveness of all therapeutic interventions used in PPD treatment including antipsychotic drugs, antidepressant drugs, mood stabilizers, central nervous system stimulants and antiepileptic. Also, to evaluate the effects of the therapeutic interventions for diagnosed patients with Paranoid Personality disorder. The purpose of the study is to also help in understanding the causes of paranoid personality disorder and how it is connected to schizophrenia.
Measurement or assessment tools in the study
Screening for personality disorder is an essential tool to allow for further assessment and determining the kind of treatment to provide. As much as self-reports are used when doing the researching about the paranoid personality disorder, the short interviews are used for screening purposes, mostly to get a small subset of items in the discussions. The discussions mainly used include the eleven criteria of Iowa Personality Disorder Screen, Standardized Assessment of Personality-Abbreviated Scale that has eight standards.
Number of participants and how they were selected
For the research, a total of six hundred and twenty-four subjects were selected (where two hundred and fifty-three of the sample subjects were psychiatry patients, and one hundred and ten persons were from the university community) and went through the three self-report screening measures. The aim of using stratified sampling was to generate the prevalence of 50% for diagnosing paranoid personality disorders in both psychiatry and non-psychiatry groups. After the self-reports from the samples from both groups, half of the number had positive screens, and that had a clear indication of the high prevalence of paranoid personality disorder. There was no repeated measure of the study.
Type of intervention delivered and how it was achieved In this particular research, therapeutic trials type of response was used. The subjects’ self-report samples were taken to know how many people had the paranoid personality disorder among both the psychiatry patients and the individuals from the university community. In this research, any drugs that have psychotropic properties in it like hypnotics, anxiolytics, antipsychotic drugs, antimanic drugs, anti-depressant drugs, central nervous stimulants, mood stabilizing agents and substance dependence drugs were used as the intervention. The psychiatry patients were the intervention group, and the university community was the control or placebo group.
Results
First, the report from Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders, the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality and the self-report measures such as the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire showed that there was a change in personality. Secondly, the report from the Global Assessment Scale showed that there transformation in the mental state of the psychiatry patients. Thirdly, there were chances of suicidal attempts or quick unplanned death. The long-term effects were the patients started complying with medicine given or the compulsory dosage; it leads to an improvement in the quality of life and social cohesion.
Criteria used to diagnose paranoid personality disorder using the DSM-5
For a person to be diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder, the person must be a significant mistrust and suspicious instincts of other people around him/her during adulthood. Especially when the typical signs of PPD are present which includes impaired close relationships, withdrawal, confused boundaries between self and others. Another criterion used to diagnose a person with the paranoid personality disorder is when the symptoms of PPD are not seen during a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or any depressive disorder with a psychotic sign.
Comparison between paranoid personality disorders with Antisocial Personality Disorder
Antisocial is a psychological condition where an individual has a long-term history of manipulation, violence or exploitation of other people’s rights. It is also called sociopathic. Whereas, paranoid personality disorder, an individual is always having suspicion and mistrust about other people they come across. In antisocial personality disorder, an individual is still egocentric, has issues with self-esteem due to the need for personal gain and selfishness. Whereas in paranoid personality disorder, individuals don’t know boundaries between themselves and others and always have their self-concept distorted. In paranoid personality disorder, the diagnosed individuals do not have a clear understanding of their behaviors impact to others, and they still misinterpret other people’s actions. On the other hand, the antisocial personality disorder individuals do not have a concern about how they treat other people and how they affect them. Additionally, in both the individuals cannot establish close or intimate relationships as they feel incapacitated to create good relations with other people.
The effective treatments or interventions used in treating paranoid personality disorder.
The most used treatment for paranoid personality disorder is psychotherapy. Cognitive-behavioral model is used to assist individuals to restore meaningful thought patterns and maladaptive behavior. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps the diagnosed patient with paranoid personality behavior with psychotherapy to understand how their thinking and feelings affect their behavior. Apart from cognitive behavioral therapy, group therapy and psychodynamic therapy are used to treat paranoid personality disorder. However, there are other medications used together with psychotherapy as much as medicine alone cannot address the personality disorders. Moreover, medicinal drugs are often not advised to be used in treatment as the patient may develop suspicious of the doctor and refuse to be treated.
Conclusion and recommendation
Providing the patient with evidence-based treatment to ensure management of the paranoid symptoms such as the violence towards others, intensity of the disease, and the chances for loss of life of a patient due to suicidal attempts helps in curbing with how intense it is. However, many people who have this disorder rarely seek medical help because of shame. Therefore there is the need for further research on the possible treatment for the prevalent disease and to find a way to encourage people who have the condition to seek help freely.