Histrionic Personality Disorder

Histrionic personality disorder is a personality disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive attention-seeking behavior, usually beginning in adolescence or early adulthood, including inappropriate seduction and an excessive desire for approval. People with the condition have a high desire for attention, make loud and inappropriate appearances, exaggerate their behaviors and emotions, crave stimulation, and are linked with hyperbolic language and communication. Symptoms typically do not fully develop until the late teens or early twenties and persist for life; general population prevalence has been estimated at 0 to 3.2 percent, though a 2020 estimate placed it as high as 10 to 15 percent, and the DSM-5 classifies it as a Cluster B, dramatic, emotional or erratic, personality disorder.