Personality Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PD-NOS)

Introduction

Personality Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified is a catch-all diagnosis in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM) for those who exhibit specific traits of personality disorders but who do not fit neatly into the other personality diagnoses.

DSM Criteria for Personality Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PD-NOS)

Personality Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PD-NOS) is listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM) as follows:

This category is for disorders of personality functioning that do not meet criteria for any specific Personality Disorder.

• An example is the presence of features of more than one specific Personality Disorder that do not meet the full criteria for any one Personality Disorder (“mixed personality”), but that together cause clinically significant distress or impairment in one or more important areas of functioning (e.g., social or occupational).
• This category can also be used when the clinician judges that a specific Personality Disorder that is not included in the Classification is appropriate.
• Examples include depressive personality disorder and passive-aggressive personality disorder (see Appendix B in DSM-IV-TR for suggested research criteria).