Advertisements
Advertisements
How heritable are personality disorders (things like antisocial personality, borderline personality, and hedonistic personality disorders)? Does anyone have experience with an adopted child who inherited the disorder, or do you think things like that are not necessarily genetic?
This is an old thread I stumbled upon. This is my 2 cents: I've heard and read that some mental illnesses are inherited. I've also read that with the right environment, these illnesses can be controlled.
Advertisements
Yes that's true, but personality disorders are a little different than most other mental illnesses. They are not very well researched or understood, so no one is quite sure how much of the disorder is genetic, or whether the disorder is trauma induced. I personally believe you need both to develop a personality disorder. It's tough to say though. WIth depression, for example, there is a clear heritability, but that doesn't seem to be the case so far with personality disorders. I would be interested to see an adoption study on personality disorders, because right now the reason that some personality disorders might be passed on is potentially simply because a parent with a personality disorder is more likely to provide an environment for the child that might make it more likely to have the same disorder.