DSM-5 and personality disorders: where did axis II go?

The past decade has seen a period of extensive research into the etiology, pathophysiology, assessment, and treatment of personality disorders. Concomitantly, a group of experts in the field were brought together to form the Personality and Personality Disorder Work Group for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), charged with the responsibility of updating the diagnostic approach to personality disorders. This article is a review of some of the history of the American Psychiatry Association's approach to the recognition and diagnosis of personality disorders over the past half century, the process of developing the recommendations for a DSM-5 personality disorder diagnosis and the elimination of the multiaxial system, and how DSM-5 has left us with essentially no changes of relevance to the practice of forensic psychiatry in the process for diagnosing personality disorders or in the specific diagnoses of personality disorder.