Interesting avoidant personality disorder facts

People with avoidant personality disorder (avoidant PD or AvPD) often consider themselves socially inept, inadequate, and are preoccupied with being rejected, humiliated, ridiculed or disliked. Although researchers found a heritability of .61, there is also a strong link between childhood abuse (sexual, physical, and emotional) and the development of AvPD. These are just a fewof the many that are listed below. On this page you can also findregarding comorbidity , demographics, and risk factors.All the facts are backed up by scientific articles: each number at the end of a fact corresponds with the APA citation and link below.Thispage is updated approximately twice a year.





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Interesting avoidant personality disorder facts – prevalence & demographics.

0.8% of people in the United Kingdom suffer from avoidant personality disorder at least once in their lives [1].

In the United Kingdom, men are more likely than women to develop avoidant personality disorder: 1.0% vs. 0.7% [1].

Between 1.2 – 1.4% of people in the United States has avoidant personality disorder at least once in their lives [2],[3].

In the United States, women are more likely than men to develop avoidant PD: 1.37% vs. 0.91% [2].

14.7% of a large psychiatric outpatients group (N=859) were diagnosed with AvPD [4].



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27.4% of the AVPD people were married, 56.1% never married, and 16.6% separated/divorced [11].

The majority of the people with avoidant PD have at least a college degree (42.7%), compared to partial college (28.7%) or maximum high school (28.7%) [11].

Of the people with avoidant PD the majority is currently employed (41.4%), compared to only 9.6% unemployed and 15.9% disabled. Almost one third (32.5%) of the people is a student/homemaker/… [11].

The 4 most common avoidant personality disorder symptoms are (1) feeling inadequate, socially, (2) inept, (3) preoccupation with rejection, and (4) the need to be liked before making social contacts [4].

Interesting avoidant personality disorder facts – risk factors.

Trauma history is present in 75.8% of the people with AVPD. 37.1% of those have lifetime PTSD [6].

Unwanted sexual contact (34.2%), followed by having a serious accident (31.4%), and witnessing injury/killing (29.4%) are among the most reported traumatic experiences in people with AVPD [6].

Of the people with avoidant personality disorder, 22.2% experienced childhood sexual abuse and 23.1% experience childhood sexual assault [6].

Parental neglect increases the chance of a diagnosis of avoidant personality disorder later in life [7].

Childhood abuse and/or neglect are other risk factors for developing AvPD [7],[10],[11].

Scoring high on harm avoidance significantly increases the risk of developing AVPD: from 3% to 47% [7].

Early onset of Major Depression increases the chance of developing AvPD [7].

Also early onset of anxiety disorders increases the chance of developing avoidant personality disorder [7].



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There is a heritability 0.61 for developing avoidant PD [9].

People with avoidant PD have a higher chance of inheriting executive function deficits which explains why they have difficulty with everyday decisions, judgment, and making choices [8].

Childhood conduct symptoms increases the probability of a AvPD diagnosis as well [7].

Avoidant PD dimensional scores were uniquely and positively related to reported levels of adolescent emotional maltreatment [12].

Interesting avoidant personality disorder facts – comorbidity.

Dependent personality disorder is common among people with panic disorder (with agoraphobia) [5].

Of the people with AvPD 34.91% also suffers from alcohol dependence [2].

19.56% of the people with AvPD also suffers from drug dependence [2].

43.32% of those with AvPD also suffers from nicotine dependence [2].

However, early onset of drug and/or alcohol abuse does not increase the chance of developing avoidant personality disorder [7].

Literature used for this page:

1. Coid, J., Yang, M., Tyrer, P., Roberts, A., and Ullrich, S., 2006. Prevalence and correlates of personality disorder among adults aged 16 to 74 in Great Britain. British Journal of Psychiatry, 188, 423–431.

2. Trull, T.J., Jahng, S., Tomko, R.L., Wood, P.K., Sher, K.J., 2010. Revised Nesarc Personality disorder diagnosis: gender, prevalence, and comorbidity with substance dependence disorders. Journal of personality disorders, 24, 412-426. doi:10.1521/pedi.2010.24.4.412.

3. Samuels, J., Eaton, W. W., Bienvenu, O. J., Brown, C. H., Costa, P. T., and Nestadt, G., 2002. Prevalence and correlates of personality disorders in a community sample. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 180, 536-542.

4. McGlashan, T. H., Grilo, C. M., Sanislow, C. A., Ralevski, E., Morey, L. C., Gunderson, J. G., … Pagano, M. (2005). Two-year prevalence and stability of individual DSM-IV criteria for schizotypal, borderline, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders: toward a hybrid model of axis II disorders. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 883–889.

5.Osma1, J., García-Palacios, A., Botella, C., & Barrada1, J. R., 2014. Personality disorders among patients with panic disorder and individuals with high anxiety sensitivity. Psicothema, 26, 159-165.

6. Yen, S., Shea, M. T., Battle, C. L., Johnson, D. M., et al., 2002. Traumatic exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder in borderline, schizotypal, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders: findings from the collaborative longitudinal personality disorders study. The journal of nervous and mental disease, 190, 510-518.

Other avoidant personality disorder articles used for this pages 7. Joyce, P. R., McKenzie, J. M., Luty, S. E., Mulder, R. T., Carter, J. D., Sullivan, P. F., & Cloninger, C. R. (2003). Temperament, childhood environment and psychopathology as risk factors for avoidant and borderline personality disorders. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 37, 756-764.

8. Coolidge, F. L., Thede, L. L., & Jang, K. L. (2004). Are personality disorders psychological manifestations of executive function deficits? Bivariate heritability evidence from a twin study. Behavior Genetics, 34, 75-84.

9. Coolidge, F. L., Thede, L. L., & Jang, K. L. (2001). Heritability of personality disorders in childhood: A preliminary investigation. Journal of Personality Disorders, 15, 33.

10. Johnson, J. G., Cohen, P., Brown, J., Smailes, E. M., & Bernstein, D. P. (1999). Childhood maltreatment increases risk for personality disorders during early adulthood. Archives of general psychiatry, 56, 600-606.

11. Skodol, A. E., Gunderson, J. G., McGlashan, T. H., Dyck, I. R., Stout, R. L., Bender, D. S., … & Sanislow, C. A. (2002). Functional impairment in patients with schizotypal, borderline, avoidant, or obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 276-283.

12. Gibb, B. E., Wheeler, R., Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (2001). Emotional, physical, and sexual maltreatment in childhood versus adolescence and personality dysfunction in young adulthood. Journal of Personality Disorders, 15, 505-511.





