Frequency of Borderline Personality Disorder in a Sample of French High School Students

Abstract

Ob jec tive: To es ti mate the fre quency of bor der line per son al ity dis or der (BPD) in French high school stu dents. Method: A ran dom sam ple of high school stu dents (n=1363) rang ing in age from Con clu sion: This study found a high fre quency of BPD in French ado les cents, which adds to ques tions re gard ing the va lid ity of di ag nos ing this dis or der in ado les cents.(Can J Psy chia try 2001;46:847-849) Key Words: adolescence, borderline personality disorder, frequency S ome stud ies have sug gested that bor der line per son al ity dis or der (BPD) can be di ag nosed re lia bly and have concur rent va lid ity in ado les cents (1,2). How ever, the low rate of per sis tence and the high rates of BPD comor bid ity with other per son al ity dis or ders in ado les cents may sug gest that this diag no sis lacks pre dic tive and con struct va lid ity in this age group (3-5). Ado les cents with per son al ity dis or ders are none the less at ele vated risk for ma jor men tal dis or ders dur ing early adult hood (6).The one study ex am in ing BPD preva lence in ado les cents found an over all preva lence of about 11% (7). Our study assesses its preva lence in a sam ple of high school stu dents. To our knowl edge, it is the first epi de mi ol ogi cal study of BPD in Euro pean ado les cents. Method Sam ple and Meas uresA ran dom sam ple of 1363 high school stu dents from Toulouse, France, were asked to com plete a per son al ity ques tionnaire, the Screen ing Test for Comor bid Per son al ity Dis or ders (STCPD) (8). STCPD is a 51-item self-report ques tion naire de vised to screen for bor der line, his tri onic, avoidant, and depend ent per son al ity dis or ders. The items were modi fied to reflect age-appropriate lan guage. Of the 1363 sub jects, 1202 (479 boys, 723 girls; mean age 16.6 years, SD 1.6; range 13 to 20) sat is fac to rily com pleted the ques tion naire. The sex dis tribu tion sug gested that the sam ple was not rep re sen ta tive; this al lowed us to cal cu late fre quency rates only. Stu dents were asked to con tinue in the study by par tici pat ing in in ter views with mas ter's level psy chol ogy stu dents, and 107 stu dents (34 boys, 73 girls; mean age 16.7 years, SD 1.8; range 14 to 20) vol un teered for the in ter view. We ob tained writ ten informed con sent. This subsam ple was com pa ra ble to the to tal sam ple in terms of age (t = 0.61, df 1307, ns) and sex (P² = 2.31, df 1, ns). These sub jects were as sessed us ing the Revised Di ag nos tic In ter view for Bor der lines (DIB-R) (9), the re li abil ity and va lid ity of which have been shown in ado lescents (10,11). In ter view ers were trained to ad min is ter and score the DIB-R, and the in ter views were audio taped.

Body Piercing and Psychopathology: A Review of the Literature

“…These elements are reminiscent of those defined as criteria for certain personality disorders (such as borderline or antisocial personality disorder) in the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. However, many of the included studies are based on samples of adolescents or college students, where these behaviours might be more frequent than in other age groups [27] . This age bias might have produced this apparent similarity.…”

Effectiveness of an emotion regulation group training for adolescents—a randomized controlled pilot study

“…Two relevant studies have reported prevalence rates of BPD in high school samples. One reported a rate of 6%, and the other 14% (Chabrol, Montovany, Chouicha, Callahan, & Mullet, 2001;Chabrol et al, 2004). It should be noted, however, that the prevalence of BPD was measured by a self-report questionnaire, which may have overestimated the frequency of personality disorders (Emmelkamp & Kamphuis, 2007).…”

Modèle de l’engagement et de l’abandon de traitement de l’adolescent avec trouble de personnalité limite

“…Plus particulièrement, la prévalence du TPL chez les adolescents serait relativement élevée. Les études épidémiologiques en population générale révèlent qu'entre 6 et 14 % des adolescents présenteraient ce trouble avec des taux plus élevés autour de l'âge de 13 ans ainsi qu'à la fin de l'adolescence (Bernstein et al, 1993;Chabrol, Chouicha, Montovany, & Callahan, 2001;Chabrol, Chouicha, Montovany, Duconge, Callahan, & Mullet, 2003). Une proportion non négligeable d'adolescents suivis en psychiatrie présente un trouble de la personnalité.…”