Neurobiology of Personality Disorders: Implications for a Neurodevelopmental Model

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511546365.019

17 - Neurobiology of Personality Disorders: Implications for a Neurodevelopmental Model

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009

Larry J. Siever ,

Harold W. Koenigsberg and

Deidre Reynolds

Edited by

Dante Cicchetti and

Elaine F. Walker

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Larry J. Siever: Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Harold W. Koenigsberg: Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Deidre Reynolds: Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Dante Cicchetti: Affiliation:
University of Rochester, New York
Elaine F. Walker: Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta

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Summary

The study of the neurobiology of personality disorders represents a unique opportunity to understand the interactions of genetics and environment with respect to the emergence of the persistent behavioral patterns and coping strategies that we label personality. In personality disorders such as schizotypal personality disorder or borderline personality disorder, temperamental vulnerabilities interacting with early and late environmental events may account for the constellation of behaviors that constitute the criteria for these disorders. In this chapter, the neurobiology of these two prototypic personality disorders will be reviewed in the context of the limited available evidence to examine how their underlying neurobiology unfolds in the context of the development of psychologic structures and behavior associated with personality.

The personality disorders constitute a level of pathology in between the persistent and chronic Axis I disorders, such as schizophrenia, and milder personality variations within the normal range. For this reason, they constitute an ideal set of disorders to evaluate individual differences and how individual differences in neurobiology translate into different patterns of psychopathology and behavioral traits. Genetic factors may “set” the initial susceptibility to these behavioral patterns that develop in the context of early intrauterine influences as well as early interactions with caretakers.

In order for a neurobiologic model to have heuristic value in generating new investigative approaches as well as contributing significantly to clinical work, the temperamental/behavioral traits to be studied need to be grounded in core psychobiologic domains such as affect regulation, cognitive organization, modulation of aggression, and anxiety (Siever & Davis, 1991).

Type: Chapter
Information: Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms in Psychopathology , pp. 405 - 427

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511546365.019 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2003

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