Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to determine the prevalence of personality disorders in male prisoners in Shahr-e-Kord prison.

Method: 203 men, 16 years or older were selected through a systemic random procedure as the subjects of the study. They were then assessed by a clinical interview checklist based on ICD-10 diagnostic criteria. Where there was a discrepancy on diagnosis, MMPI-2 was used as an aid.

Findings: The prevalence of personality disorder was 55.2% amongst the subjects. The most prevalent disorders were antisocial personality disorders (18.2%), schizoid personality disorder (8.4%), and dependent personality disorder (8.4%). They were followed by borderline (7.4%), mixed (3.4%), his-trionic (3%), obsessive (3%) and paranoid personality disorder (2.5%). The results also indi-cated that the prevalence of personality disorder based on the sort of crime was the highest amongst the robbers, (64.1%) followed by inmates incarcerated for drug addiction, murder, drug dealing, and fraud respectively at 60.9%, 55.6%, 55%, and 40.9%. There were also a sig-nificant correlation between the subjects’ marital status, educational level, and age with per-sonality disorders.

Results: The high prevalence of personality disorders among prisoners suggests a broader investigation and prevention measures by judicial system, prison autho-rities, and medical personnel.