Personality disorders: 9 questionnaires and rating scales

The SCID-II-PQ is a personality assessment questionnaire designed to diagnose personality disorders according to the criteria defined by the DSM-IV. It aims to identify the presence of personality traits or disorders by assessing a person's behaviors, thoughts and emotions over an extended period. It can detect disorders such as avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive, borderline, antisocial and narcissistic personality disorder, among others.

The Paranoia Worries Questionnaire (PWQ) is a brief 5-item self-report questionnaire that measures, over the past month, the intensity of worries centered on the idea that other people are trying to upset, threaten or harm the person. Developed for clinical practice and research, it is particularly useful in adults with clinical paranoia, persecutory ideas or non-affective psychosis, especially for screening, monitoring symptom change and evaluating the effects of a psychological intervention.

The OAS is a clinical observation scale designed to objectively assess overt aggressive behavior in adults and children, particularly in inpatient psychiatry or institutional settings. It measures four dimensions of aggression: verbal aggression, physical aggression against objects, physical aggression against self, and physical aggression against other people. The tool makes it possible to document each aggressive episode according to its level of severity, as well as the interventions put in place by the team. It is particularly useful for longitudinal monitoring, risk assessment, analysis of treatment response, and the standardization of observations in both clinical practice and research.

The BPQ is a self-report assessment tool designed to screen for traits associated with borderline personality disorder. It is based on DSM diagnostic criteria and allows key dimensions such as emotional instability, impulsivity, identity disturbance, and relationship difficulties to be explored. The BPQ consists of items to which the patient answers "true" or "false" based on their experience over a period of at least two years. This tool is useful in clinical settings to guide diagnostic assessment or to monitor changes in symptoms during therapeutic follow-up.

The MSI-BPD is a self-report questionnaire designed for the rapid screening of borderline personality disorder (BPD). It contains 10 items covering the main criteria for BPD according to the DSM-IV. The tool makes it possible to identify people who are likely to have borderline personality disorder and who require an in-depth clinical evaluation.

The BPDSI is a semi-structured interview designed to assess the severity of borderline personality disorder symptoms over the past three months. It provides a quantitative measure of the disorder's main clinical manifestations according to DSM criteria, making it easier to monitor changes in symptoms and to evaluate treatment effectiveness.

The SIDP-IV is a structured clinical interview for the systematic assessment of personality disorders according to DSM-IV criteria. It facilitates the differential diagnosis of all the listed disorders, while providing useful clinical observation items. This tool is mainly used in research or in specialized assessment in psychopathology.

The BPAQ is a self-report questionnaire assessing dispositional aggression. It measures four complementary dimensions of aggression: physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility. This tool is widely used in clinical psychology, psychiatry, forensic settings and research to objectively document a patient's aggression profile, identify the most salient dimensions and monitor changes over the course of treatment. It assesses the behavioral, emotional and cognitive manifestations of aggression, which makes it useful for exploring acting-out behaviors, irritability, emotional reactivity and hostile attitudes.

The PDQ-4 is a self-report screening questionnaire for personality disorders designed for clinical or research use. It assesses the 10 personality disorders defined in the DSM-IV, as well as two additional categories, using a categorical approach. Each disorder is associated with a minimum threshold of pathological answers at which the result is considered positive. Although it offers good sensitivity, particularly for borderline personality, its specificity remains limited, which means it should be used as an initial screening tool. Interpretation must always be supplemented by a thorough clinical assessment.