ABSTRACT
The anxious/inhibited personality disorders (Cluster C) include avoidant personality disorder, dependent personality disorder, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. These are prevalent personality disorders in the general population. In clinical settings the avoidant personality disorder is highly prevalent and as common as borderline PD; the dependent PD and obsessive-compulsive PD are less prevalent in clinical settings. Among the personality disorders, disorders from the anxious/inhibited cluster are rather neglected in the research literature, despite being the largest group in community studies. Whether the Cluster C is a valid diagnostic entity has been questioned. In particular the position of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder needs further investigation, given conflicting results of factor analyses and the low to mild impairment associated with this disorder. There is some evidence that dependent personality disorder is comprised of two different components: attachment/abandonment and dependency behaviours. Further, research suggests avoidant personality disorder should be broadened to include avoidance of unpleasant emotions and novel situations in addition to avoidance of social situations.
