Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder: A Search for a Syndrome

This paper presents data from a seven- to 15-year follow-up study of 100 patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of passive-aggressive personality disorder, who were compared with 50 matched controls with other psychiatric diagnoses. The clinical features of the subjects were remarkably homogeneous both on cross-sectional and longitudinal evaluations. Their psychopathology was most prominent in disturbances of interpersonal relationships and social behavior, affective reactions, and somatic complaints; some also had problems with depressive episodes and/or alcohol abuse. The clinical features were relatively stable over time, although some patients appeared to have improved with outpatient psychotherapy.