Symptoms can include anything from extreme passivity, devastation or helplessness when relationships end, avoidance of responsibilities, and severe submission.

[4] While the exact cause of dependent personality disorder is unknown,[5] a study in 2012 estimated that between 55% and 72% of the risk of the condition is inherited from one's parents.

[7] Dependent traits in children tended to increase with parenting behaviours and attitudes characterized by overprotectiveness and authoritarianism.

[8] There is a higher frequency of the disorder seen in women than men; hence, expectations relating to gender role may contribute to some extent.

It refers to a pervasive and excessive need to be taken care of which leads to submissive and clinging behavior and fears of separation.

It serves as a possible alternative nosological system that emerged from the efforts to create an empirically based approach to personality disorders – while also preserving the complexity of clinical reality.

[11] Based on the Q-Sort method and prototype matching, the SWAP-200 is a personality assessment procedure relying on an external observer's judgment.

The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual includes two different types of dependent personality disorder:[11] The PDM-2 adopts and applies a prototypic approach, using empirical measures like the SWAP-200.

The main goal of this therapy is to make the individual more independent and help them form healthy relationships with the people around them.

Findings from the NESArC study found that 18 to 29 year olds have a greater chance of developing DPD.

Later psychoanalytic theories shifted the focus from a drive-based approach of dependency to the recognition of the importance of early relationships and establishing separation from these early caregivers, in which the exchanges between the caregiver and the child become internalized, and the nature of these interactions becomes part of the concepts of the self and of others.