What Is It?

For individuals with schizotypal personality disorder, the profound social discomfort and anxiety they experience may translate into distorted thinking and perceptions. For example, such an individual may get the eerie feeling that someone else is present in the room, or may believe that others are talking about him.

Individuals with schizotypal personality disorder may present themselves in ways that attest to their social anxiety. Their speech may be vague, for instance, their language full of exaggeration, metaphors, or clichés, and their mannerisms and appearance may in some ways be odd and uninviting. They may find it difficult to engage in either casual or meaningful conversations; instead, they tend to relate in a stiff, awkward, or constricted manner.

• Acute discomfort and reduced capacity for relationships
• Distorted thinking and perceptions about other people
• Personal habits, mannerism, and appearance that are off-putting
• Inappropriate or constricted expressions of emotions
• Suspicious or paranoid thinking
• Extreme social anxiety
• Lack of close friends.

Treatment

Classical psychoanalytically-oriented, psychodynamic psychotherapy and in some cases psychoanalysis can be impressively effective. Other types of talk therapies that take a more here-and-now approach are also quite effective with personality disorders. In addition to the use of traditional psychotherapy, other therapeutic strategies, including cognitive-behavioral techniques and family and group therapy, have proven to be useful. With schizotypal disorders, psyscho-educational methods -- along with supportive psychotherapy -- can help the individual develop more appropriate social skills.

The use of medication in treating personality disordered patients varies, but is, in many instances, quite effective, especially when used in conjunction with psychotherapy. Furthermore, it is often the case that a person with a personality disorder comes into therapy reporting vague feelings of depression, anxiety, or certain physical complaints. In those instances, such psychiatric disorders will also be addressed with the appropriate medications. Sometimes, serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) -- paroxetine (Paxil), fluoxetine (Prozac) sertraline (Zoloft), and fluvoxamine (Luvox) --may diminish impulsiveness, the tendency to worry, and depressed mood in people with personality disorders who do not have other diagnosable psychiatric disorder.

Studies show that since personality traits are enduring characteristics, personality disorders tend to persist over the years. However, some seem to resolve. It is likely that through life experience, a person learns to modify the basic aspects of his personality and avoid relationships that don't work.

With treatment, the prognosis improves, especially when an individual seeks out treatment on her own, cooperates with the treatment, and takes responsibility for her problems. People can learn to modify the expression of these traits through effort; the change in their actual behavior that results can reduce their vulnerability to circumstance. On the other hand, when a person projects his difficulties out into his environment, denies responsibility, and claims that he is powerless to correct his own problems, treatment tends to be less effective.

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