Suchergebnisse

Personality disorders (PD) play an important role in clinical psychiatry. The typologies of personality disorders (PDs) found in different classification systems, such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), are quite congruent. There are many methodological problems with reliability and validity of the diagnosis of PD. However, having a typology seems to be very helpful. Recent psychological autopsy studies reported that about one third of suicide victims met the criteria for a PD. Antisocial PD, borderline PD, narcissistic PD, and depressive PD in particular were often clinically associated with suicidal behavior.

After the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka, and Africa, the German government set up a crisis task force that implemented crisis-intervention teams covering Thailand (Phuket and Khao Lak), Sri Lanka, and Sumatra. Two crisis teams were sent to Phuket; the first one on 28 December 2004, and the second one on 3 January 2005, each for an average of 1 week. This intervention was primarily for the benefit of German citizens and their expatriates and relatives caught up in a major catastrophe as well as the German helpers. This article describes the organizational structures of the German crisis intervention, protective factors for the helpers, psychiatric syndromes - often acute traumata, the problems of the identification process for relatives, and crisis intervention itself. Consequences for further crisis intervention after natural disasters are discussed.