Dependent Personality Disorder Essay

According to the DSM-5 2013, Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD) is an excessive and pervasive need to be taken care of, submissive, clinging, needy behavior, and fear of separation beginning by early adulthood. Five or more of the following contexts may be expressed, such as difficulty making routine decisions without input, reassurance, and advice from others, requiring others to assume responsibilities that they should be attending, fear of disagreeing with others and risking disapproval. Difficulty starting projects without support from others, desperately seek another relationship when one ends, excessive need to obtain nurturance and support from others, even allowing others to impose themselves rather than risk rejection or disapproval, feels vulnerable and helpless when alone. (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5 2013).

Psychotherapy is the primary treatment for DPD, such as social skills training and CBT. Social skills training will help start a conversation, communicate, and understand verbal and no-verbal cues during interactions. Cognitive-behavioral therapy faces challenging situations and turns their negative thinking to positive. (Wheeler, 2015). cognitive behavioral therapy is a treatment method for DPD (Dependent PD) of various subtypes. Cognitive therapy enables a patient diagnosed with a personality disorder to understand his/her history, including childhood traumas. A patient’s treatment of relearning how to relate with his or her past facilitates the transformation of thinking from feeling inadequate to mentally strong men and women who view themselves as functionally adequate when alone. The self-sufficient capacity to fill themselves up, without a need to depend on others or have feelings of emptiness resolved by helping others, indicates successful treatment. (Ramsay & Jolayemi, 2020)

The FDA approves no medication for DPD; however, patients with DPD are at risk for anxiety, depression, phobias, and drug abuse. Antidepressants or anxiety medications can be prescribed if the patient has depression or anxiety. (Stahl et al., 2017).

A patient with Dependent Personality Disorder will manifest clinical features like avoidance of personal responsibility, difficulty being alone, fear of abandonment when a relationship ends, difficulty in making daily decisions. (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5 2013).

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Dsm-5.

Ramsay, G., & Jolayemi, A. (2020, August 9). Personality Disorders Revisited: A Newly Proposed Mental Illness. Cureus. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7478931/.

Stahl, S. M., Grady, M. M., & Muntner, N. (2017). Prescriber’s Guide: Stahl’s Essential psychopharmacology. Cambridge University Press.

Wheeler, K. (2015). Psychotherapy for the advanced practice psychiatric nurse a how-to guide for evidence-based practice. Springer Publishing Company, LLC.