News And Events

Medical journal ‘The Lancet’ recently featured a series of articles on personality disorder titled ‘Classification, assessment, prevalence and the effect of personality disorder’, ‘Treatment of personality disorder’, ‘Personality disorder across the life course’ and an editoral titled 'Rethinking personality disorder'.

The series challenges the opinion that personality disorder is permanent, unchanging and largely untreatable. Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health supports this challenge and the journal’s focus on personality disorder.

As part of the series, Professor Andrew Chanen, Deputy Director, Research and Head, Personality Disorder Research at Orygen, co-authored ‘Personality disorder across the life course’ with Dr Giles Newton-Howes and Professor Lee Anna Clarke. The article reviews contemporary research that shows that maladaptive personality is common, can be recognised early in life and evolves continuously throughout the life course, and that these insights offer opportunities for effective early intervention in treatment and support for those with personality disorder.

Professor Chanen believes The Lancet series is a step in the right direction in removing some of the negativity around the treatment of personality disorder.

‘This series challenges both the pessimism and discriminatory practices that are still common in mental health systems. Personality disorder is probably the most common psychiatric disorder, yet it is the most under-diagnosed.’

‘Treatment improves the lives of people with personality disorder. This series recognises the contribution of Orygen and others showing that systematically delivered, good clinical practice is almost as effective as the highly specialised psychotherapies.’

Professor Chanen developed and directs the award-winning Helping Young People Early (HYPE) program, a clinical, research and training program based at Orygen that is focused on understanding, preventing and treating severe personality disorder in young people.

‘Good clinical practice is an achievable aim in our health system that will improve the lives of people living with personality disorder. This series recognises the work of Orygen and other groups in establishing that personality disorder begins in childhood and adolescence and can be diagnosed at this time.’

‘Recognising personality disorder in young people, along with the dimensional nature of personality disorder across the lifespan, supports Orygen’s innovative work in prevention, early identification, and treatment of such problems.

The Lancet Personality Disorder Series

Rethinking personality disorder

Treatment of personality disorder

Personality disorder across the life course

Classification, assessment, prevalence, and effect of personality disorder