Citation

Moran P, Klinteberg BA, Batty GD, Vågerö D. J. Personal. Disord. 2009; 23(5): 535-540.

Affiliation

Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK. paul.moran@iop.kcl.ac.uk

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Guilford Publications)

DOI

10.1521/pedi.2009.23.5.535

PMID

19817633

Abstract

Although low pre-morbid IQ is an established risk factor for severe mental illness, its association with personality disorder (PD) is unclear. We set out to examine whether there is a prospective association between childhood intelligence and PD in adulthood. Using a population-based prospective cohort study, we linked childhood IQ scores to routinely collected hospital discharge records in adulthood. Lower IQ scores were related to higher risk of being hospitalized with a PD across the full range of IQ scores, (odds ratio per one SD increase in IQ was 0.60; 95% CI: 0.49-0.75; p(trend) = 0.001). Adjusting for potential confounding variables had virtually no impact. We conclude that low childhood IQ predicts hospitalization with PD and may be an important factor in the development of PD.

Language: en