Controversy Associated with Personality and Paraphilic Disorders

Paraphilic disorders are far more common in men than in women, and generally quite chronic, lasting at least two years. Treatment of these disorders usually involves both psychotherapeutic and pharmacologic treatments.

In this Assignment, you will explore personality and paraphilic disorders in greater detail. You will research potentially controversial elements of the diagnosis and/or treatment and explain ethical and legal considerations when working with these disorders.

To Prepare

• Review this week’s Learning Resources and consider the insights they provide on assessing, diagnosing, and treating personality and paraphilic disorders.
• Select a specific personality or paraphilic disorder from the DSM-5 to use for this Assignment.
• Use the Walden Library to investigate your chosen disorder further, including controversial aspects of the disorder, maintaining the therapeutic relationship, and ethical and legal considerations. 

The Assignment

In 2–3 pages:

• Explain the controversy that surrounds your selected disorder.
• Explain your professional beliefs about this disorder, supporting your rationale with at least three scholarly references from the literature.
• Explain strategies for maintaining the therapeutic relationship with a patient that may present with this disorder.
• Finally, explain ethical and legal considerations related to this disorder that you need to bring to your practice and why they are important.

Learning Resources

Required Readings (click to expand/reduce)National Institute for Health and Care Excellence: NICE Guidelines. (2010). Antisocial personality disorder: Prevention and management.https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg77

Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2015). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry (11th ed.). Wolters Kluwer. (For review as needed)

• Chapter 22, “Personality Disorders”

Thapar, A., Pine, D. S., Leckman, J. F., Scott, S., Snowling, M. J., & Taylor, E. A. (Eds.). (2015). Rutter’s child and adolescent psychiatry (6th ed.). Wiley Blackwell.  

• Chapter 67, “Disorders of Personality”
• Chapter 68, “Developmental Risk for Psychopathy”
• Chapter 69, “Gender Dysphoria and Paraphilic Sexual Disorders” (pp. 988–993 only)

Zakhari, R. (2021). The psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner certification review manual. Springer Publishing Company.

• Chapter 14, “Personality Disorders”

Required Media (click to expand/reduce)Buchanan, N. T. (2020, April 13). Lecture 14 part 3: Paraphilic disorders [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykkMo9t0bxsMDedge. (2020, January 22). Personality disorders with Dr. Frank Yeomans [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESQIDslCX_s