Taxonic structure of schizotypal personality disorder: A multiple-instrument, multi-sample study based on mixture models

Fossati, Andrea; Citterio, Alessandra; Grazioli, Federica; Borroni, Serena; Carretta, Ilaria; Maffei, Cesare; Battaglia, Marco

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2005.02.008

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Volume 137, Issue 1 , Pages 71-85, 15 November 2005

Taxonic structure of schizotypal personality disorder: A multiple-instrument, multi-sample study based on mixture models

Andrea Fossati
- Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, via Stamira D'Ancona, 20, 20127 Milan, Italy
- Corresponding author. Servizio di Psicologia Clinica e Psicoterapia, Istituto Scientifico H San Raffaele, via Stamira D'Ancona, 20, 20127 Milano, Italy. Tel.: +39 02 2643 3241; fax: +39 02 2643 3408.
Alessandra Citterio
- Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, via Stamira D'Ancona, 20, 20127 Milan, Italy
Federica Grazioli
- Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, via Stamira D'Ancona, 20, 20127 Milan, Italy
Serena Borroni
- Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, via Stamira D'Ancona, 20, 20127 Milan, Italy
Ilaria Carretta
- Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, via Stamira D'Ancona, 20, 20127 Milan, Italy
Cesare Maffei
- Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, via Stamira D'Ancona, 20, 20127 Milan, Italy
Marco Battaglia
- Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, via Stamira D'Ancona, 20, 20127 Milan, Italy
- Eugenio Medea Scientific Institute, Bosisio Parini, Italy

Received 28 April 2004; received in revised form 3 December 2004; accepted 25 February 2005.

Abstract

This study used a multi-sample, multiple-instrument strategy to evaluate the hypothesis that schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is taxonic. In Study 1, 721 consecutively admitted inpatients and outpatients were evaluated with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID-II) and the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+). The data from both questionnaire types were submitted to multivariate normal mixture analysis, which was carried out on factor scores obtained from a three-factor model of SPD criteria; these results supported the hypothesis that SPD is taxonic. The same was true of Study 2, which administered the Semi-structured Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders (SIDP-R) to an independent sample of 537 consecutively admitted outpatients. Similar findings were observed in Study 3, in which the SIDP-R was administered to 225 non-clinical subjects. The results show that the typology of DSM III-R and -IV SPD diagnosis is consistent with the latent structure of SPD features.

Keywords: Schizotypal disorder, Taxonomy, Mixture models, Latent structure analysis, Structural equation modeling