Long-term, consistent outpatient care is the approach of choice in the treatment of NPD. Specifically, psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a mainstay of treatment. Other therapeutic modalities used to treat the disorder include group, family, and couples therapy, as well as cognitive-behavioral therapy and short-term objective-focused psychotherapy.
In general, therapists should recognize that narcissism plays a self-preserving role in the patient's daily life; for this reason, they should be cautious about deconstructing narcissistic defenses too rapidly and work to help the patient gain a realistic comprehension of their own behavioral issues. A too-swift breaching of the self-inflated defenses can plunge the patient into clinical depression and lead to suicide.
As a rule, patients with NPD do best with shorter hospital stays; prolonged time in the hospital does little to change the underlying severity of the illness.
Learn more about treating NPD.
This Fast Five Quiz was excerpted and adapted from the Medscape article Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
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Cite this: Stephen Soreff. Fast Five Quiz: Narcissistic Personality Disorder Key Aspects - Medscape - Jun 24, 2022.
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