Cross-system concordance of personality disorder diagnoses of DSM-IV and diagnostic criteria for research of ICD-10

The aim in this study was to examine the cross-system concordance between the personality disorders (PDs) of DSM-IV and Diagnostic Criteria for Research of ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders, 10th rev. (ICD-10) PD diagnoses were made by a structured interview in a clinical psychiatric sample of 138 individuals. Both categorical and dimensional scores for each PD were established. The frequency of patients with a PD diagnosis on either classification who were also positive on the other varied from 26% for the schizoid PDs to 88% for the histrionic PDs. The chance-corrected agreement (Cohen's kappa) ranged from .37 to .94. The dimensional correlation (Pearson's r) between pairs of PD criteria sets was in the range of .79 to .98. In conclusion, when analyzed categorically, some of the PDs of DSM-IV and ICD-10-DCR were only moderately concordant. The reasons appear to be different criteria formulations and arbitrary thresholds for diagnoses. In contrast to categorical diagnoses, dimensional agreement was high, implicating similar trait-concept definitions. The least concordant pair of PD was antisocial (DSM-IV)-dissocial (ICD-10).