Section III of 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) includes a hybrid model of personality pathology, in which dimensional personality traits (PTs) are used to derive one of six categorical Personality Disorder (PD) diagnoses. The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) has been developed to assess PTs within this new system.

PT is a tendency to feel, perceive, behave, and think in relatively consistent ways across time and situations. PD diagnosis is generally stated if a pattern of maladaptive PTs persists at least 5 years. Nevertheless, the PID-5 instruction does not cover duration of symptoms.

We have explored the effect of two different types of instructions, in which duration of symptoms is or is not explicitly mentioned, on the PID-5 scores. Moreover, we have asked whether the scores differ in psychiatric patients and healthy individuals.

Differences between original and modified instructions of the Czech PID-5 version have been evaluated in a group of 62 psychiatric patients and 38 healthy controls; each respondent has been administered both instruction types in random sequence. ANOVA mixed design has been used to test the relation between groups and different sequence of administration.

We have found no consistent differences in PID-5 scores using the different types of instruction described above.

In our sample, PID-5 seems to reflect strong beliefs of a subject regardless of symptoms’ duration and could be reliably used with both types of instruction. The PID-5 represents an appropriate instrument for the assessment of maladaptive PTs.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.