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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffPersonality is the combination of thoughts, emotions and behaviors that makes you unique. It's the way you view, understand and relate to the outside world, as well as how you see yourself. Personality forms during childhood, shaped through an interaction of inherited tendencies and environmental factors.
In normal development, children learn over time to accurately interpret social cues and respond appropriately. For people with schizotypal personalities, something goes wrong during this process, leading to illogical beliefs, unusual thinking and paranoid feelings. What exactly goes wrong isn't known, but it's likely that one or more factors cause problems with the way the brain functions, and genetics may play a role.
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- Sadock BJ, et al. Kaplan & Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Wolters Kluwer Health Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2009. http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&CSC=Y&NEWS=N&PAGE=booktext&D=books2&AN=01412563/9th_Edition/5&XPATH=/OVIDBOOK%5b1%5d/METADATA%5b1%5d/TBY%5b1%5d/EDITORS%5b1%5d. Accessed March 3, 2013.
- Silk KR. Personality disorders. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed March 3, 2013.
- Skodol A, et al. Approaches to the therapeutic relationship in patients with personality disorders. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed March 3, 2013.
- McClure MM, et al. Functional outcomes, functional capacity, and cognitive impairment in schizotypal personality disorder. Schizophrenia Research. 2013;144:146.
- Afifi TO, et al. Childhood adversity and personality disorder: Results from a nationally representative population-based study. Journal of Psychiatric Research. 2011;45:814.
- Alarcon RD (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. March 21, 2013.
- Palmer BA (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. April 1, 2013.
- Hall-Flavin DK (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. April 3, 2013.
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