Global Trends of Personality Disorders' Publications in the last 40 years

The aim of this dissertation is to assess the growth of the existing literature on Personality Disorders published during the last 40 years, therefore ranging from January 1985 to December 2024. Previous authors have assessed the general trends of literature on the topic of Personality Disorders up to 2005, with projections up to 2015. The last decade, which includes the COVID-19 outbreak, is yet to be considered in research pertinent to the topic. To ascertain the development of the topic in recent years, a search was undertaken by means of the APA PsycInfo database. Our findings show a stagnation in this field, with each and every PD showing a negative growth compared to the previous decades. Borderline Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder and Schizotypal Personality Disorder remain the three disorders with the highest number of publications, though not spared by the general trend. Our dissertation contributes to research in this area of psychology, filling the gap of the last decade, though more in-depth studies are necessary in order to understand the potential causes and consequences of this recession.