§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
In the context of the draft mental health Bill, which of the academic studies of the prevalence of personality disorder (a) in the general population; (b) in primary care; and (c) in prisoners they believe to be most reliable. [HL5448]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)An expert advisory group, set up with the agreement of Ministers to advise on delivering a strategy for the treatment of people with personality disorder, has reviewed a paper produced by Dr Paul Moran on the epidemiology of personality disorder, and ratified its findings. The studies quoted as follows, which are taken from Dr Moran's paper, provide the latest and most reliable information on the prevalence of personality disorder.
These are as follows:
- (a) The General Population
- Studies into the prevalence of personality disorder in the general population report prevalence figures ranging from 10 per cent to
WA 25 13 per cent (de Girolamo & Dotto 2000). These studies have found that personality disorders are more common in younger age groups (particularly the 25 to 44 year age group) and equally distributed between males and females—although the sex ratio for specific types of personality disorder is variable (for example, antisocial PD is commoner in males). - (b) Primary Care
- Epidemiological studies report that the prevalence of personality disorder in primary care lies between 10 and 30 per cent (Dilling et al 1989; Casey & Tyrer 1990).
- (c) Prison Population
- In 1997 the Office for National Statistics conducted a survey on "Psychiatric morbidity amongst prisoners". This found that the prevalence of any personality disorder was 78 per cent for male remand, 64 per cent for male sentenced and 50 per cent for female prisoners (Singleton et al 1998).