Treatment facilities for people with personality disorders in the Republic are "extremely unsatisfactory", a major conference has been told.
The British and Irish Group for the Study of Personality Disorders, which is holding its annual conference in Dublin this week, heard that personality disorder affects one person in 10 of the population.
Prof Peter Tyrer, professor of community psychiatry at Imperial College London, said that last month it became health policy in England and Wales to have a dedicated service for people with personality disorder.
"In the Republic of Ireland, there are no services for people with the condition, which must be regarded as a serious omission."
Prof Patricia Casey, of the department of adult psychiatry at University College Dublin and the Mater Hospital, who organised the conference, told The Irish Times that most people with severe personality disorder ended up in the prison system rather than receiving treatment in the health service.
"Treatment, if it was available, could reduce the incidence of violent reoffending and therefore have a positive effect for the individual and his family and on society as a whole," she said.
A study currently being conducted at the Mater and St Vincent's psychiatric hospitals into the treatment of deliberate self-harm could benefit patients here.
Psychologists Maeve Kenny and Odhrán McCarthy have devised a novel form of behaviour therapy for people with personality disorder which, according to the preliminary results reported at the conference, is likely to significantly add to the treatment options available to patients.
According to Prof Tyrer, there are three personality disorder types: those of an eccentric disposition; people with flamboyant and dramatic traits; and those who are anxious and fearful.
"People with personality disorder have a problem getting on with others and often fail to achieve their full potential in life," he said, adding that it was only a small sub-group of people who exhibited an anti-social personality type which rendered them a danger to society.