Objective: The authors examined the frequency of DSM-III-R personality disorders in adolescent and young adult psychiatric inpatients.
Method: Structured diagnostic interviews were reliably performed with a series of 255 consecutively admitted inpatients (138 adolescents and 117 young adults).
Results: Most personality disorders were diagnosed in similar frequencies in the two study groups. Passive-aggressive personality disorder was diagnosed with lower frequency and dependent personality disorder with higher frequency in the young adult than in the adolescent group.
Conclusions: The isomorphism of relative frequencies among psychiatric inpatients suggests that what is seen in adolescents are valid forms of most adult personality disorders.