Lesson 1Assessing comorbidities common with personality disorders: mood, anxiety, PTSD, substance use, ADHD, and when to refer for neurocognitive testingLooks at common extra problems with personality disorders, like mood issues, anxiety, PTSD, substance use, and ADHD. It covers checking for them, telling them apart, ordering treatment, and when to send for brain function tests or specialist help.
Checking for mood and anxiety problemsFinding PTSD and complex traumaSubstance use and addictive habitsSpotting ADHD across life stagesWhen to send for brain function testsOrdering treatment with extra problemsLesson 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. It stresses going slow, safety, checking for dissociation, and connecting past trauma to current personality ways.
Using ACEs and similar check toolsChildhood trauma question forms in detailTalking about attachment experiencesChecking dissociation and breaking apartGoing slow, safety, and steadyingConnecting trauma to current waysLesson 3Cultural formulation and differential baseline personality expression: cultural identity, explanatory models, and bias reduction in assessmentLooks at how culture shapes personality showing and checking, including cultural self, explanation ways, norms, and doctor bias. Gives plans for cultural formulation, putting symptoms in context, and not calling normal differences sickness.
Getting cultural self and group tiesLooking into cultural explanation waysNorms for feelings, actions, and selfTelling culture from sicknessSpotting and handling doctor biasUsing cultural formulation talksLesson 4Collateral history gathering: consent, sources, how to elicit reliable information from family, primary care, past therapistsLooks into right and practical steps for getting extra history, including agreement ways, picking good sources, setting up questions, and fixing differences to make info reliable and cut bias in personality checking.
Getting and writing down clear agreementPicking good extra sourcesSetting up extra talks for clearnessHandling different extra infoDealing with secret-keeping and privacy limitsLesson 5Comprehensive psychiatric history: developmental, trauma, attachment, education/employment, legal, substance use, treatment historyDetails parts of a full mind health history fit for personality problems, including growth steps, trauma, attachment, school and work, legal matters, substance use, and past treatments, watching time order and setting.
Growth steps and natureFamily setting and attachment pastSchool and work pathLegal, money, and home historySubstance use ways and resultsPast treatments and how they workedLesson 6Functional assessment: occupational, social, interpersonal functioning, activities of daily living, risk triggersCenters on checking real-life working in job, school, relations, self-care, and risk. Stresses linking working problems to personality traits, finding triggers, and using findings to guide care level and help ways.
Checking job and school rolesLooking at social and close relationsDaily living and self-care activitiesFinding risk triggers and waysLinking traits to working problemsUsing working to guide treatmentLesson 7Documenting and synthesizing findings into a diagnostic formulation and problem listCovers how to put interview info into a clear diagnosis formulation, link signs to personality traits, put first a problem list, and share findings clear to patients and teams to guide treatment planning and risk handling.
Putting data by areas and timesLinking traits, signs, and stressesWriting a multi-area style formulationPutting first and setting up problem listSharing formulations to patientsUpdating formulations over timeLesson 8Structured diagnostic instruments: SCID-5-PD, SCID-5-CV, IPDE — administration, scoring, interpretationIntroduces main structured diagnosis tools for personality disorders, including SCID-5-PD, SCID-5-CV, and IPDE. Covers when to use, how to give, score, understand, and mix results with doctor judgment.
Overview of main PD talk toolsWhen to use and not useGetting patients ready and setting hopesStandard giving waysScoring, levels, and trustMixing results with doctor judgmentLesson 9Mental status examination focused on personality features: affective lability, identity, cognition, empathy, reality testingDescribes how to do a mind status check with stress on personality parts, including feeling control, self, thinking, empathy, and reality check. Highlights words for writing and meanings for diagnosis.
Watching feeling range and steadyChecking self and self-ideaLooking at thought content and styleChecking empathy and view takingReality check and small mind sick signsWriting personality-related findings
