One in seven Norwegians are affected by personality disorders

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Unk's Wild Wild West : One Thread

Friday June 22, 2001 yahoo

Personality Disorders More Common in City Dwellers

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Personality disorders, which encompass a range of diagnoses, affect nearly one in seven Norwegians and are more likely to be found in those who live alone and inside a city, according to a team of psychologists.

``Personality disorders are relatively prevalent,'' Dr. Svenn Torgersen, a psychologist at Oslo University in Norway, and colleagues write. The team conducted the study to determine exactly how common personality disorders are in the population at large.

The researchers interviewed more than 2,000 Norwegians who were considered representative of the entire country's population. They report their results in the June issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The investigators found that 13.4% of individuals in the greater Oslo area had a personality disorder such as paranoid, schizoid (inability to relate socially to others), antisocial, sadistic, narcissistic, histrionic (excessively dramatic or emotional), obsessive-compulsive, dependent, passive-aggressive or self-defeating.

The most common personality disorder, affecting 5%, was avoidant, characterized by excessive sensitivity to criticism.

Men were more likely to suffer from schizoid and passive-aggressive personality disorders, while histrionic and dependent personality disorders were more common among women.

Those with a personality disorder were more likely to be living alone than with a partner, to have only a high school education or less, and to be living in the center of a city rather than its outskirts.

However, whether these associations are the causes of the personality disorders or the consequences of them can only be answered by future studies, the researchers note.

The work was funded by the Norwegian Council for Mental Health and the Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation, both in Oslo.

SOURCE: Archives of General Psychiatry 2001;58:590-596.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 25, 2001

Answers

Anita?

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 25, 2001.

I must have just been lucky when I was there and only met the 'other six'. New York, on the other hand. . .

-- Hardliner (searchr@internet.com), June 25, 2001.

One person’s ‘personality disorder’ is another person’s ‘character reference’.

……Socrates

-- So (cr@t.es), June 25, 2001.


While one in seven seems high, Lars, how do Norwegians compare to people in other countries? There's no comparison data offered. It may be that one in two Iranians have these problems or one in fifty Samoans. What might be the average world-wide? I don't know, and the article listed mentions no comparisons. I'd particularly be interested in similar studies of the other Scandinavian countries. There were some studies years ago on how the winter months affected the mind, and I would think that folks in countries where winter essentially lasts nine months of the year would encounter more problems than folks in countries where the weather was consistently warm [yet not hot] all year around.

Come to think of it, there was a study once that stated that Swedes had a higher rate of suicide than other countries. There was also a study once that stated that Air Traffic Controllers had the highest rate of suicide among professions. Should I be amazed that my plane always lands when I fly to Sweden? Those Swedish Air Traffic Controllers AREN'T all dead.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), June 25, 2001.


Anita--

I think suicide rates are hard to accurately establish, but if this table is accurate then Sweden and Norway (and the US) are in the middle. You don't want to be a man living in Eastern Europe however.

As far as personality disorder is concerned, my data shows that Norwegians are very stable. Booga, booga, booga!

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 25, 2001.



Interesting that China is the only country where female suicide rates exceed male rates.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 25, 2001.

Interesting that China is the only country where female suicide rates exceed male rates.

Especially newborn females.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), June 25, 2001.


Cherri, good point. Unborn females too.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 25, 2001.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ