La diagnosi di personalità in adolescenza: riflessioni introduttive e indicazioni metodologiche.

Background: Criticisms made, in clinical and research fields, to the diagnostic approach to personality disorders seem much more remarkable when it comes to assess personality in evolutionary age; the concept of personality disorder in adolescence requires a specific consideration in the light both of etherogeneous individual functioning and of specific developmental tasks. Objective: To investigate limits and advantages of personality diagnosis in adolescence and to suggest reference criteria and useful instruments for a reliable personality assessment in adolescence. Methodology: On the grounds of some theoretical and clinical reflections upon specificity of adolescence psychopathology and of the outcomes of some studies investigating presence and stability of adolescence personality traits, we consider strong and weak points of three diagnostic systems/instruments: DSM-IV-TR, SWAP-200-A, PDM. Following is a clinical exemplification. Critical discussion and conclusions: The prevalence of personality disorders in adolescence is equivalent to that of adults, despite different expressions. Since "emerging" dysfunctional traits of personalities display an evolutionary specificity, in order to have a valid clinical assessment we need that diagnostic instruments respond to criteria derived from empirical research and linked to a multi-dimensional approach to adolescent functioning.