The older adult population is booming in the United State and across the globe. With this boom comes an increase in the number of older adults who experience psychological disorders. Current estimates suggest that about 20% of older persons are diagnosable with a mental disorder: Personality disorders are among the most poorly understood, challenging, and frustrating of these disorders among older adults. This book is designed to provide scholarly and scientifically-based guidance about the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of personality disorders to health professionals, mental health professionals, and senior service professionals who encounter personality-disordered or "difficult" older adults.
Praise for Personality Disorders and Older Adults The authors have presented a valuable addition to the literature of geropsychology, a clinically relevant work whose virtues are its comprehensiveness, ease of understanding, and simplicity of expression.
-Theodore Millon, PhD, DSc, Dean and Scientific Director Institute for Advanced Studies in Personology and Psychopathology
...a "must-have" for all clinicians working with this population and an important resource for students and trainees.
-Bob Knight, PhD, University of Southern California
...[this book] should be on the bookshelf of all mental health professionals who work with "problem" clients in geriatric settings, and of all academics who want to understand the latest thinking on aging, personality, and dysfunction.
-Victor Molinari, PhD, ABPPLouis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute University of South Florida
...this volume is a much-needed state-of-the-art compendium for both clinicians and researchers.
-Michael Duffy, PhDTexas A&M University
Improving quality of life for older adults with personality disorders
This book provides a theorized pattern for each personality disorder in later life. It examines the potential impact of aging on each of the personality disorders and offers extended case examples for odd and eccentric, dramatic and erratic, and fearful and anxious personality disorders as well as other personality disorders that affect older adults: sadistic, self-defeating, depressive, passive-aggressive, and inadequate. The authors offer guidance based on scholarly research and scientific evidence. The book covers epidemiology and comorbidity, theories of personality disorders, assessment, and intervention strategies.
Personality disorder represents a tough and often frustrating challenge for clinicians. On top of this already challenging clinical situation, managing older patients entails contending with the physical and cognitive declines, social losses, reduced independence, and financial strains associated with the aging process. Armed with a better understanding of this very challenging clinical population, readers can help personality-disorderedolder adults age more gracefully and successfully, and help improve their quality of life.
