Diagnostic Interview for Borderline Patients

Interactions between Depression and Borderline Personality Disorder

“…It can be suggested that inpatients with BPD may be 'loaded' with depressive disor ders when compared with outpatients [8,27], but this type of comparison was irrele vant for our purposes. It was noteworthy that characteristics frequently associated with BPD (splitting, emptiness, suicide at tempts, dependency) were found signifi cantly more frequently in BPD patients who were also depressed, suggesting that the cate gory BPD is an amorphous one and might include several different types of borderline and depressive symptoms which, in turn, arc associated with varying levels of functioning and prognosis.…”

Affective and Behavioral Features of DSM-III Borderline Personality Disorder

“…Empirical observations of Grinker [17] revealed that one of his subgroups of borderline patients reacted angrily toward other people, and another subgroup had an ger alternating with depression. Borderline patients have been shown to be more angry, sarcastic, and hot-tempered than depressed or schizophrenic control groups [18,19]. Another study compared a group of border line patients with schizophrenic, neurotic, personality disorder, or adjustment reaction control groups.…”

“…Previous research had generally shown that borderlines were more impulsive than schizophrenic, depressed, and normal control groups [20,23,30], 'Impulse-action patterns' (i.e., manipulative suicide, drug abuse) were much more severe in borderlines compared to neurotic depressives or schizo phrenics [5]. Others have found the border line to be as impulsive as schizophrenic con trol groups, although the degree of impulsiv ity is usually high in both groups [18,19].…”

“…They were also more de structive to propery, promiscuous in sexual relationships, more unconcerned for others, and sadistic in close relationships [20]. The failure of borderlines to achieve their voca tional potential has since been replicated [ 18,23]. However, one study found that border lines were as antisocial as a schizophrenic control group [19].…”

Affect instability in adults with a borderline personality disorder

“…Another striking finding of this study is that although significant group differences were found between the BPD and Asymptomatic subjects in the level of unpleasant (sad/unhappy) and activatedunhappy (anxious/fearful), the average level of unpleasant affects reported by the BPD group was remarkably low. Many theoretical and clinical accounts suggest that not only are adults with BPD highly sensitive to emotional stimuli but, in addition, their emotional reactions are pathologically intense and slow to return to baseline (Linehan, 1987b;Snyder & Pitt, 1985;Soloff & Ulrich, 1981;Soloff, Cornelius, & George, 1991). Based on this perspective, individuals with BPD could be expected to report higher average levels of anger, irritability, and sadness.…”