``Personality disorders are relatively prevalent,'' Dr. Svenn Torgersen, a psychologist at Oslo University in Norway, and colleagues write. The team conducted the study to determine exactly how common personality disorders are in the population at large.

The researchers interviewed more than 2,000 Norwegians who were considered representative of the entire country's population. They report their results in the June issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The investigators found that 13.4% of individuals in the greater Oslo area had a personality disorder such as paranoid, schizoid (inability to relate socially to others), antisocial, sadistic, narcissistic, histrionic (excessively dramatic or emotional), obsessive-compulsive, dependent, passive-aggressive or self-defeating.

The most common personality disorder, affecting 5%, was avoidant, characterized by excessive sensitivity to criticism.

Men were more likely to suffer from schizoid and passive-aggressive personality disorders, while histrionic and dependent personality disorders were more common among women.

Those with a personality disorder were more likely to be living alone than with a partner, to have only a high school education or less, and to be living in the center of a city rather than its outskirts.

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