Assessing personality disorders in eating disordered patients using the SCID-II: Influence of measures and timing on prevalence rate

The SCID-II Personality Questionnaire is available as a screening tool to shorten the time it takes to perform the SCID-II interview. However, very little is known about combining the questionnaire with the interview in eating disordered individuals. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of personality disorder (PD) among patients with eating disorders (ED) by combining initial screening self-assessment with a later interview. not performed until axis I symptoms decreased. This was performed on 154 patients with ED. According to the initial self-assessment, the rate of any PD was 90%; however, according to the later SCID-II interview, the rate decreased to 37%. In a sub-sample of 15 patients, the questionnaire was filled out twice: at intake and at the time of the interview. In the subgroup performing the questionnaire twice, there was no decline in PD symptoms over time. However, the PD rate decreased significantly when the patient was assessed by the interview. These findings indicate that the influence of measures might be greater than the influence of timing. The findings support that prevalence rates of PD in eating disordered patients are high, but not as high as it has commonly been reported. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.