Lesson 1Assessing comorbidities common with personality disorders: mood, anxiety, PTSD, substance use, ADHD, and when to refer for neurocognitive testingThis lesson reviews common comorbidities with personality disorders, like mood, anxiety, PTSD, substance use, and ADHD. It covers screening, telling them apart, treatment order, and when to send for brain function tests or specialist help in local settings.
Screening for mood and anxiety disordersIdentifying PTSD and complex traumaSubstance use and addictive behavioursRecognising 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 techniquesThis lesson gives ways to assess trauma and attachment patterns using ACEs, structured questionnaires, and clinical talks. It stresses pacing, safety, checking for dissociation, and connecting past trauma to current personality issues in everyday practice.
Using ACEs and similar screening toolsChildhood trauma questionnaires in depthInterviewing for attachment experiencesAssessing dissociation and fragmentationPacing, safety, and stabilisationConnecting trauma to current patternsLesson 3Cultural formulation and differential baseline personality expression: cultural identity, explanatory models, and bias reduction in assessmentThis lesson looks at how culture shapes personality expression and assessment, including cultural identity, explanatory models, norms, and clinician bias. It offers strategies for cultural formulation, putting symptoms in context, and avoiding labelling differences as illness in diverse Zambian communities.
Eliciting cultural identity and affiliationsExploring cultural explanatory modelsNorms for emotion, behaviour, and selfDistinguishing culture from pathologyRecognising and managing clinician biasUsing cultural formulation interviewsLesson 4Collateral history gathering: consent, sources, how to elicit reliable information from family, primary care, past therapistsThis lesson explores ethical and practical steps in getting collateral history, including consent processes, choosing right informants, structuring questions, and sorting out differences to improve reliability and cut bias in personality assessment within Zambian healthcare.
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 historyThis lesson details parts of a full psychiatric history fitted to personality pathology, covering developmental milestones, trauma, attachment, education and work, legal matters, substance use, and past treatments, with focus on timeline and context in local settings.
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 triggersThis lesson focuses on checking real-life functioning in work, school, relationships, self-care, and risk. It stresses linking functional problems to personality traits, spotting triggers, and using findings to guide care level and interventions in Zambian practice.
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 listThis lesson covers organising interview data into a clear diagnostic formulation, linking symptoms to personality traits, prioritising a problem list, and sharing findings plainly with patients and teams to guide treatment planning and risk management in clinics.
Organising data by domains and timelinesLinking traits, symptoms, and stressorsDrafting a multiaxial style formulationPrioritising and structuring the problem listCommunicating formulations to patientsUpdating formulations over timeLesson 8Structured diagnostic instruments: SCID-5-PD, SCID-5-CV, IPDE — administration, scoring, interpretationThis lesson introduces main structured diagnostic tools for personality disorders, like SCID-5-PD, SCID-5-CV, and IPDE. It covers when to use them, how to administer, score, interpret, and blend results with clinical judgement in everyday Zambian care.
Overview of major PD interview toolsIndications and contraindications for usePreparing patients and setting expectationsStandardised administration proceduresScoring, thresholds, and reliabilityIntegrating results with clinical judgementLesson 9Mental status examination focused on personality features: affective lability, identity, cognition, empathy, reality testingThis lesson describes conducting a mental status exam with focus on personality features, like affect control, identity, thinking, empathy, and reality checking. It highlights words for records and meanings for diagnosis in local clinical work.
Observing affective range and stabilityAssessing identity and self-conceptEvaluating thought content and styleAssessing empathy and perspective takingReality testing and micropsychotic signsDocumenting personality-relevant findings
