5 percent of Britons have a disorder

Nearly 5 percent of the British population has a personality disorder and men are more likely to suffer from such problems than women, researchers say.

The most common condition among the nearly 8,900 people studied was obsessive-compulsive disorder, concludes the study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

University of London researcher Jeremy Coid said he hoped the findings would spur more work to "identify high-risk groups at a younger age," The Independent reported.

Coid said people suffering anti-social and borderline personality disorders were more likely to have been convicted of a crime, in prison or in state care.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International