RESUMO
The Clinical Dimensional Personality Inventory 2 (IDCP-2) is a 206-item self-report tool developed for the assessment of 12 dimensions (divided into 47 factors) of personality pathology. One of the scales comprising the instrument, the Distrust scale, is intended to provide psychometric information on traits closely related to the Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD). In the present research, we used the Item Response Theory and the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis to establish a clinical meaningful cutoff for the Distrust scale. Participants were 1,679 adults, among outpatients diagnosed with PPD, outpatients diagnosed with other PDs, and adults from the community. The Wright map revealed that outpatients were located at the very high levels on the latent continuum of the Distrust scale, with a very large effect size for the mean difference between patients and non-patients. The ROC curve supported a cutoff at -1.00 score in theta standardization which yielded 0.87 of sensitivity and 0.54 of specificity. Findings from the present investigation suggest the IDCP-2 Distrust scale is useful as a screening tool of the core features of the PPD. We address potential clinical applications for the instrument and discuss limitations from the present study.
Assuntos
Transtorno da Personalidade Paranoide/diagnóstico , Inventário de Personalidade/normas , Escalas de Graduação Psiquiátrica/normas , Psicometria/normas , Confiança , Adolescente , Adulto , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Suspiciousness, feeling persecuted, and grandiosity constitute the classical triad associated with paranoid personality. However, a more important feature appears to be the discrepancy between the outer persona and the inner world of such individuals. The split is pervasive and involves self-concept, object-relations, affects, morality, sexuality, and cognitive style. Outwardly, paranoid individuals are demanding, arrogant, mistrustful, driven, unromantic, moralistic, and acutely vigilant towards the external environment. Internally, however, they are frightened, timid, self-doubting, gullible, inconsiderate, vulnerable to erotomania, and cognitively unable to grasp the totality of actual events. This way of conceptualizing the paranoid symptomatology is superior to ordinary check-list methods since it (1) links the phenomenological and psychostructural aspects of the condition, (2) helps in a more meaningful differential diagnosis of paranoid from other personality disorders, and most importantly, (3) hints at areas that require exploration in the psychotherapeutic management or psychoanalysis of such individuals.