Avoidant Personality Disorder Causes

Avoidant Personality Disorder Causes, Frequency, Siblings and Mortality - Morbidity

Causes

• The exact cause of APD is unknown.
  
• The disorder may be related to temperamental factors that are inherited. Specifically, various anxiety disorders in childhood and adolescence have been associated with a temperament characterized by behavioral inhibition, including features of being shy, fearful, and withdrawn in new situations. Components of this temperament have been identified in infants as young as 4 months.
  
• Genetic factors have been hypothesized to cause APD and social phobia because both conditions are found more frequently in certain families. The exact mechanism of transmission is unknown, and phenotypic expression of any underlying genetic vulnerability may include other anxiety disorders.
  
• Although not specifically studied in cases of APD, traumatic experiences, parental overprotection, poor social skills, and parental anxiety have been found to be related to social anxiety.
  
• Retrospective studies of adults with APD report high levels of childhood emotional abuse (61%). Physical abuse, however, may be more closely linked with a diagnosis of another personality disorder or PTSD.
  
• A multifactorial model of causation is likely, with several of the above factors exerting variable influence in individual cases.
  

From an evolutionary point of view, the "fight-or-flight" dichotomy suggests that both hostility & avoidance are naturally occurring responses to fear. Both are thought to be based on anxiety evoked by the presence of a feared stimulus object or situation. However, avoidance can co-vary with fear, vary inversely or vary independently (Rachman & Hodgson, 1974). Therefore, avoidance behavior seems to be more complex than is accountable for by the simple presence of fear or anxiety. What appear to be purposeful hostile reactions to others, for example, may be indicative of highly complex psychological processes.