IPDE - Extranet Systems - World Health Organization

117 Scope of the IPDE
a behaviour should be present before it can be considered a personality
trait. ICD-10 states that it should be stable and of long duration.
Therefore, we have adopted the somewhat conservative convention that
it should exist for a span of at least five years. Consideration was given to
a three-year requirement, but it was decided that might too frequently
lead to confounding episodic mental illnesses or responses to unusual or
special life situations with the more enduring behaviour associated with
personality. Some may feel this is too exacting. especially when applied
to adolescents or young adults. Si
users of the IPDE will differ in
their predilection for making personality disorder diagnoses in adolescents,
those who prefer a three-year requirement may adopt it for that
age group. They should specify, however, that they have departed from
the standard instructions. The use of anything less than a five-year timeframe
with subjects over 20 years of age is discouraged.
ICDlO dates the onset of the first manifestations of a personality disorder
to late childhood or adolescence. For that reason we have taken the
somewhat arbitrary position, that the requirements for at least one criterion
of a disorder must have been fulfilled prior to age 25, before that
pdcular disorder can be diagnosed. Age 25 years rather than an earlier
age was selected to allow more informed and accurate judgements about
many of the adult-oriented personality disorder criteria.
Clinical tradition notwithstanding, it is possible that personality transformations
may occur in midlife or old age, and that a hue personality
disorder may emerge de novo at that time. In the absence of empirical
data, rather than encourage premature closure on the subject we have
made pmvision in the IPDE for an optional late onset diagnosis. We
have also provided the option of making a past diagnosis in someone
who previously met the requirements, but has not done so during the past
year(l2 months).
Scope of the IPDE
The IF'DE is not designed to survey the entire realm of personality. Its
purpose is to identify those traits and behaviours that are relevant to an
assessment of the criteria for personality disorders in the ICD-10 and
DSM-IV classification systems. It neglects many neutral, positive, and
adaptive traits, because they are irrelevant to a personality disorder
assessment. It also does not cover other mental disodm, because there
are instruments available for them. We recommend their use prior to the
IF'DE, to provide the examiner with clinical and historical information