mental health disorders
Schizotypal Personality Disorder
Diagnosis of Schizotypal Personality Disorder
A doctor's evaluation, based on standard psychiatric diagnostic criteria , 5th ed, Text Revision, ( Classification and Diagnosis of Mental Illness ), the standard reference for psychiatric diagnosis from the American Psychiatric Association. For doctors to diagnose schizotypal personality disorder, people must be intensely uncomfortable with and have very few close relationships and have odd thinking and behavior. They must also have at least 5 of the following: Ideas of reference Odd beliefs or magical thinking Distorted perceptions Odd thought and speech Suspicions or paranoid thoughts Inappropriate or limited expression of emotion Odd, eccentric, or peculiar behavior and/or appearance Lack of close friends or confidants, except first-degree relatives Excessive social anxiety that does not lessen with familiarity and is related mainly to paranoid fears Also, symptoms must have begun by early adulthood. Doctors must distinguish schizotypal personality disorder from Schizophrenia , which causes similar, but more severe symptoms. 