Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Bo Bach, University of Southern Denmark
- Second opponent: Professor Monica Martinussen, University of Tromsø
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Lars Mehlum, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Unn Kristin Hansen Haukvik, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Associate Professor Muirne Paap, University of Groningen, Oslo University Hospital
Summary
The DSM-5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders redefines personality disorders (PDs) in terms of impairments in personality functioning and pathological personality traits.
Especially, the introduction of the Levels of Personality Functioning Scale formalizes the assessment of PD severity, which has not previously been a required step in PD assessment.
Focusing particularly on structured clinical interviews, the current thesis sought to explore some central aspects of the way the transition to a dimensional classification system for PDs will impact the assessment of PDs in clinical practice.
Four empirical studies were conducted for this thesis: Study 1 was a multisite, naturalistic, explorative study examining the latent factor structure of the SCID-II and SCID-5-PD. Study 2 was a qualitative interview study exploring and comparing clinicians ́ experiences with learning and using the SCID-II, SCID-5-PD, and SCID-5-AMPD-I. Study 3 was a multisite exploratory study on whether and how clinicians utilized the SCID-5-AMPD-I funnel structure. Study 4 was a systematic literature review conducted to identify and evaluate methods of visually communicating measurement uncertainty to improve correct interpretation of assessment results and informed decision making.
Findings suggest that the implementation of a dimensional framework for PDs may require the adoption of new standardized clinical interviews specifically developed to accommodate the assessment of general PD severity. The SCID-5-AMPD-I is a promising candidate to fill this role in the future. The adoption of this interview will likely require a greater emphasis on formal training. If such training is provided, the novel, non-linear, funnel structure of this interview appears to promote efficient and personalized patient assessments. Uncertainty related to individual patient scores can be communicated to clinicians using visual formats which emphasize the underlying probability distribution.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.