Personality Disorders in Brazilian Homeless Compared with Non-Psychiatric and Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

Personality disorders are regarded as conditions that involve a maladaptive personality functioning. Homelessness is a worldly debated phenomenon. The present study aimed to understand the situation of homelessness related to the health sector, instead of considering it only as a social or economic problem. Research was conducted with three different groups, male and female, living in a Metropolitan area of Southeast Brazil, the first composed of 71 homeless people; the second, 74 psychiatric patients; and the third, 250 college students that completed the Personality Disorders Dimensional Inventory (IDTP). A logit regression model and ROC curve were used to analyse data. Results showed that homeless people scored higher in all dimensions, especially Antisocial and Schizotypal, compared with the other groups. Although the number of participants was reduced to only one part of the country, as well as the correlational design preventing clearer causal inferences, the results of this research call the attention for the need of new investigations to homeless people’s mental health, aiming to focus on public health policies that could deal with the problem.