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Variability of Mood and the Diagnosis of Hysterical Personality Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Phillip R. Slavney  and
Gerald Rich
Phillip R. Slavney
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Phipps Clinic, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205, USA
Gerald Rich
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
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Summary

Twenty patients with the diagnosis hysterical personality disorder were compared with a matched control group of patients with other personality and neurotic diagnoses. Subjects' moods were assessed with a visual analogue scale 4 times a day for 5 consecutive days. Patients with a primary discharge diagnosis of hysterical personality disorder showed greater variability of mood than controls. Since emotional lability is said to be a characteristic hysterical trait, the results are taken as empirical support for the validity of one of the clinical judgements inherent in the diagnostic process.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 136 , Issue 4 , April 1980 , pp. 402 - 404
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1980 

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