Schizotypal personality disorder: characteristics

Personality is understood as a pattern of behavior and relatively stable thinking throughout the life cycle through time and situations that provides guidelines for behavioral preference and that influences our way of understanding and acting in the world and ourselves.

However, on some occasions the personality that is forged throughout development is not structured in an adaptive and functional way with respect to the environment. in which they live, which is difficult to limit their own performance and reduce the possibilities of the subject in addition to producing frustration and suffering.

For example, it can make it difficult to establish intimate relationships, adapt behavior to the context or present ways of thinking and acting fanciful and far from reality. This is what happens in schizotypal personality disorder.

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Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Schizotypal personality disorder is understood to be the set of relatively consistent behavior and thought patterns throughout the life of the subject and through the situations in which the individual who suffers from it manifests a pattern of interpersonal deficiencies that make it difficult for him to have close personal relationships at the same time as maintains

considerable eccentric behavior and in which there are various cognitive alterations.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder is listed as a serious personality disorder, which would fall within cluster A. It is a severe difficulty for those who suffer from it, since it makes it difficult to maintain social relationships and can cause a feeling of helplessness and emptiness. It may also be difficult for you to focus on specific objectives and present episodes of derealization and depersonalization. There is a limited and decontextualized affectivity, and sometimes anhedonia.

People with schizotypal personality they tend to maintain beliefs and ideations considered as fantasy or strange. Paranoid and self-referential beliefs stand out, although they do not usually reach the level of delirium. They also often have magical and superstitious beliefs and thinking. It is not uncommon for them to experience perceptual disturbances, such as illusions and images. Their behavior may not be adapted to the social context or the situations that are being experienced.

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Your social skills

The social capacities of people with schizotypal personality disorder are limited, manifesting quirky behaviors and a high level of social anxiety that remains despite frequent and familiar contact. This is produced in large part by paranoid ideations that make them very suspicious of other people's behavior.

Also, these people are cold and distant and tend to withdraw. However, although not in all cases its isolation is due more to the anxiety and mistrust than a lack of social interest.

Their language also has peculiarities, since despite maintaining logic and coherence, they tend to use striking terms and have a tangential discourse that does not go directly to the question they want to raise. The use of metaphors and circumlocutions is frequent.

Causes of the disorder

As a personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder is a pattern of thinking and behavior that is largely learned and acquired throughout life, despite what there is a genetic predisposition to manifest certain characteristics. However, it must be taken into account that depending on the context this predisposition may not be expressed, so that the environment has a great importance in its appearance.

Studies carried out regarding biological elements that may explain this disorder seem to indicate that schizotypal personality disorder is more common in relatives of schizophrenic patients, which suggests that it is possible that genetic and / or educational aspects can cause this type of personality. The presence of elements similar to schizophrenia has also been manifested, such as the presence of difficulties in eye tracking of movement or the presence of low concentrations of monoamine oxidase platelet.

The ascending reticular system and the limbic system are parts of the brain that have been linked to the etiology of this disorder. There is also talk of the presence of hypersensitivity to humiliation or disapproval by their peers and / or reference figures during development as elements that can trigger this disorder together with poor stimulation.

• Related article: "The 6 types of schizophrenia and associated characteristics"

Treatment

Treating a personality disorder is especially complex, since It involves altering the way a person sees the world, thinks and acts. Personality is a set of traits that tend to remain more or less stable throughout life, making it difficult to modify it.

However, there are methods that can serve this purpose. Regarding schizotypal personality disorder the type of treatment that is usually applied is cognitive-behavioral, although psychodynamic therapy has also been used with success.

First of all, it must be taken into account that individuals with these types of characteristics tend to be very suspicious and prone to paranoid thinking, with which it is essential to establish a very good therapeutic relationship based on trust and respect in order to reduce suspicions and possible conflicts in order to be able to work on the situation in a efficient.

Regarding the presence of cognitive distortions, the treatment in question involves proposing to the patient to carry out behavioral experiments that prove or falsify her beliefs, so that he can evaluate her thoughts.

Aspects such as the aforementioned suspicion or magical thinking can be greatly reduced, the direct confrontation of beliefs not being effective. They must also reflect on their way of thinking and acting and the damage they cause. Thus, it is common to use techniques such as cognitive restructuring.

Intervention on personal relationships

Another crucial aspect is social skills training in order to alleviate their interpersonal difficulties. The use of group therapy is recommended and techniques such as psychodrama and modeling of social behaviors can be very useful to improve aspects such as the adaptation of the behavior to the context and the development of the communication.

In addition, this allows the existence of a feedback of the behavior of each subject by the rest of the participants. It is also useful to contribute to the improvement of their language and expressiveness, proposing the use of summaries in case of circumstance.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fifth edition. DSM-V. Masson, Barcelona.

• Millon, T. (1999). Personality disorders: beyond DSM IV. Masson: Barcelona.

• Olivencia, J.J. and Cangas, A.J. (2005). Psychological treatment of schizotypal personality disorder. A case study. Psicothema, 17 (3). 412-417.

• Quiroga, E. & Errasti, J. (2001). Effective psychological treatments for personality disorders. Psicothema, Vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 393-406. University of Almería and University of Oviedo.

• Santos, J.L.; García, L.I.; Calderón, M.A.; Sanz, L.J.; de los Ríos, P.; Izquierdo, S.; Roman, P.; Hernangómez, L.; Navas, E.; Ladrón, A and Álvarez-Cienfuegos, L. (2012). Clinical psychology. CEDE Preparation Manual PIR, 02. CEDE. Madrid.