Lesson 1Assessing comorbidities common with personality disorders: mood, anxiety, PTSD, substance use, ADHD, and when to refer for neurocognitive testingLooks at common co-occurring issues with personality disorders, like mood swings, anxiety, PTSD, substance use, and ADHD. Covers screening, telling them apart, treatment order, and when to send for brain function tests or specialist help.
Screening for mood and anxiety disordersIdentifying PTSD and complex traumaSubstance use and addictive behaviorsRecognizing ADHD across the lifespanWhen to refer for neurocognitive testingTreatment sequencing with comorbidityLesson 2Assessing trauma and attachment patterns: using ACEs, childhood trauma questionnaires, and clinical interview techniquesGives ways to check trauma and attachment styles using ACEs, structured question forms, and clinical talks. Stresses going slow, ensuring safety, checking for dissociation, and connecting past trauma to current personality ways.
Using ACEs and similar screening toolsChildhood trauma questionnaires in depthInterviewing for attachment experiencesAssessing dissociation and fragmentationPacing, safety, and stabilizationConnecting trauma to current patternsLesson 3Cultural formulation and differential baseline personality expression: cultural identity, explanatory models, and bias reduction in assessmentLooks at how culture shapes personality show and assessment, including cultural self, explanation ways, norms, and doctor bias. Gives plans for cultural summary, putting symptoms in context, and not labeling differences as illness.
Eliciting cultural identity and affiliationsExploring cultural explanatory modelsNorms for emotion, behavior, and selfDistinguishing culture from pathologyRecognizing and managing clinician biasUsing cultural formulation interviewsLesson 4Collateral history gathering: consent, sources, how to elicit reliable information from family, primary care, past therapistsExplores right and practical steps to get extra history, including consent ways, picking good informants, structuring questions, and fixing differences to make assessment reliable and less biased for personality.
Obtaining and documenting informed consentSelecting appropriate collateral informantsStructuring collateral interviews for clarityManaging conflicting collateral informationAddressing confidentiality and privacy limitsLesson 5Comprehensive psychiatric history: developmental, trauma, attachment, education/employment, legal, substance use, treatment historyDetails parts of full psychiatric history fit for personality issues, including growth steps, trauma, attachment, school and work, legal matters, substance use, and past treatments, noting time order and background.
Developmental milestones and temperamentFamily environment and attachment historyEducational and occupational trajectoryLegal, financial, and housing historySubstance use patterns and consequencesPrior treatments and response patternsLesson 6Functional assessment: occupational, social, interpersonal functioning, activities of daily living, risk triggersFocuses on checking real-life working in job, school, relations, self-care, and risks. Stresses linking function problems to personality traits, finding triggers, and using results to guide care level and help.
Assessing occupational and academic rolesEvaluating social and intimate relationshipsActivities of daily living and self-careIdentifying risk triggers and patternsLinking traits to functional impairmentUsing functioning to guide treatmentLesson 7Documenting and synthesizing findings into a diagnostic formulation and problem listCovers organizing talk data into clear diagnostic summary, linking symptoms to personality traits, listing main problems first, and sharing findings simply to patients and teams for treatment plans and risk handling.
Organizing data by domains and timelinesLinking traits, symptoms, and stressorsDrafting a multiaxial style formulationPrioritizing and structuring the problem listCommunicating formulations to patientsUpdating formulations over timeLesson 8Structured diagnostic instruments: SCID-5-PD, SCID-5-CV, IPDE — administration, scoring, interpretationIntroduces main structured tools for personality disorders, like SCID-5-PD, SCID-5-CV, and IPDE. Covers when to use, how to give, score, understand, and mix results with clinical thinking.
Overview of major PD interview toolsIndications and contraindications for usePreparing patients and setting expectationsStandardized administration proceduresScoring, thresholds, and reliabilityIntegrating results with clinical judgmentLesson 9Mental status examination focused on personality features: affective lability, identity, cognition, empathy, reality testingDescribes doing mental status check with focus on personality parts, like mood changes, self-identity, thinking, empathy, and reality check. Highlights words for records and meaning for diagnosis.
Observing affective range and stabilityAssessing identity and self-conceptEvaluating thought content and styleAssessing empathy and perspective takingReality testing and micropsychotic signsDocumenting personality-relevant findings
