1
Borderline Personality
Disorder
N.P. Costigan, MD
Alberta Health Services
Community Addiction & Mental Health
Central Zone
Clinical Professor
University of Alberta
2
Introductory Comments
 The terms “borderline” originally described a constellation of symptoms considered to be
on the “border” of neurosis and psychosis.
 BPD first included in the DSM-III in 1980. Prior to 1980, the word “borderline” had been used
to refer to:
 A spectrum of disorders.
 Difficult patients.
 Diagnostic uncertainty.
 A type of personality organization.
 A mild or atypical form of Schizophrenia
 “Borderline” often used to refer to symptoms or a syndrome that borders on an illness. (eg.
borderline diabetic, borderline schizophrenic, etc).
3
Although in the past BPD has been considered a sub-type of
Schizophrenia and by others an atypical mood disorder (a variant of
Bipolar Disorder), research supports the validity of BPD as an
independent diagnostic entity.
Characteristics Central to BPD Diagnosis
4
1.
Chaotic relationships.
2.
Wide fluctuations in emotional state (labile affect).
3.
Unstable self of self or self-image.
Patients with BPD are stably unstable or predictably unpredictable.
5
ICD - 10
Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder
 Probably a better phenomenologic term for Borderline Personality Disorder.
6
DSM
Borderline Personality Disorder
DSM-V Diagnostic Criteria
A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, affect and marked
impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five
(or more) of the following:
1.
Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.
2.
A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating
between extremes of idealization and devaluation.
3.
Identity disturbance; marked and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.
4.
Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (spending, sex, substance
abuse, reckless driving, binge eating).
5.
Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures or threats or self-mutilating behavior.
6.
Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (intense episodic dysphoria, irribility
usually lasting a few hours and only rarely only a few days).
7.
Chronic feelings of emptiness.
8.
Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger.
9.
Transient, stress related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.
7
Movie Example
 Fatal Attraction – Glen Close and Michael Douglas
 “Fatal Attraction Situation” - refers to a situation where a spurned lover
seeks revenge.
 The character of Alex Forrest has been variously diagnosed as
psychotic, psychopathic, sociopathic, delusional, obsessed, crazy,
disturbed, troubled, irrational, sad, distraught, erotomanic, and a
deranged stalker.
8
Diagnostic Features
The essential feature of Borderline Personality Disorder is a pervasive pattern of instability of
interpersonal relationships, self-image and affect and marked impulsivity that begins by early
adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts:
1.
Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.
 Perception of impending separation or rejection or the loss of external structure can
lead to profound changes in self-image, affect, cognition and behavior.
 Experience intense abandonment fears and inappropriate anger even when faced
with a realistic time limited separation or when there are unavoidable changes in
plans (eg. cancelled appointments).
 May believe that “abandonment” implies they are “bad”.
 Abandonment fears are related to an intolerance of being alone.
9
2.
Pattern of unstable and intense relationships.
 May idealize potential caregivers or lovers at the first or second meeting,
demand to spend a lot of time together and share the most intimate
details early in a relationship.
 May switch quickly from idealizing other people to devaluing them,
feeling that the other person does not care enough, does not give
enough, is not “there” enough.
 BPD individuals can empathize with and nurture others, but only with the
expectation that the other will “be there” in return to meet their own
needs on demand.
 BPD are prone to sudden and dramatic shifts in their view of others
10
3. Identity disturbance characterized by markedly and persistently unstable
self-image or sense of self.
 Sudden and dramatic shifts in self-image, characterized by shift in goals,
values and vocational aspirations.
 May be sudden changes in opinions and plans about career, sexual
identity, values and types of friends.
 BPD individuals may suddenly change from a role of a needy supplicant
for help to a righteous avenger of past mistreatment.
 Self-image is usually based on being bad or evil; however may at times
may have feelings that they do not exist at all.
11
4. Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging.
 Gamble, spend money irresponsibly, binge eat, abuse substances,
engage in unsafe sex, drive recklessly.
12
5. Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, threats or self-mutilating behavior.
 Completed suicide occurs in 8-10% of BPD.
 Self-mutilating acts, suicide threats and attempts are very common.
 Recurrent suicidality is often the reason that these individuals present for
help.
 Self-destructive acts are usually precipitated by threats of separation or
rejection or by expectations that they assume increased responsibility.
 Self-mutilation may occur during dissociative episodes and often brings
relief by reaffirming the ability to feel.
 Self-mutilation often described as changing a catastrophic sense of
being overwhelmed to something more tangeable.
13
6. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood.
 These episodes may reflect the individuals extreme reactivity to
interpersonal stresses.
 May be severely depressed or truly euphoric – for a brief period of time.
14
7. Chronic feelings of emptiness.
 Easily bored, they may constantly seek something to do.
15
8. Frequently express inappropriate intense anger or have difficulty controlling their
anger.
 May display extreme sarcasm, enduring bitterness, have verbal outbursts.
 Anger is often elicited when a caregiver or lover is seen as neglectful,
withholding, uncaring or abandoning.
16
9. During periods of extreme stress, transient paranoid ideation or dissociative
symptoms may occur.
 These episodes occur frequently in response to a real or imagined
abandonment.
 Symptoms tend to be transient, lasting minutes or hours.
17
Associated Features
 Repeated crises, often resulting in ER visits.
 Marked devaluation of past relationships, therapists and efforts to help the
patient.
 Considerable diagnostic variability; may have several different diagnoses given
over time.
 Appear to be unable to solve basic problems for themselves.
 May have a pattern of undermining themselves at the moment the goal is about
to be realized (dropping out of school just before graduation; severe regression
when successful therapy is ending; destroying a good relationship just when it is
clear the relationship could last).
 May feel more secure with transitional objects (pets or inanimate possessions)
than interpersonal relationships.
 Recurrent job losses, interrupted education, broken marriages are common.
 Physical and sexual abuse, neglect, hostile conflict and early parental loss or
separation are common themes.
18
Comorbidities
Commonly co-occurring AXIS I disorders include:
 Mood Disorders
 Substance-related Disorders
 Eating Disorders (notably bulimia)
 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
BPD also frequently co-occurs with other personality disorders.
Over 90% of patients have two diagnoses, and over 40% have three or more diagnoses.
19
Course of BPD
 Considerable variability.
 Most common pattern is one of chronic instability in early adulthood, with episodes of
serious affective and impulsive dyscontrol with high utilization of health and mental
health resources.
 Impairment and risk of suicide are greatest in the young adult years and gradually
wane with advancing age.
 Individuals who engage in therapeutic intervention often show improvement during
the first year.
 During their 30’s and 40’s, most individuals with BPD attain greater stability.
 Follow-up studies through outpatient Mental Health Clinics indicate that after 10
years, as many as half the individuals no longer meet the criteria.
20
Genetics
 BPD is 5 times more common among first degree biological relatives of those with the
disorder than in the general population.
 Also an increased familial risk for substance related disorders, anti-social personality
disorder and mood disorders.
21
Differential Diagnosis
BPD in it’s more florid forms is not difficult to diagnose. Patients frequently present to
ER in a state of turmoil. Often a psychosocial crisis that threatens a relationship
causes the upheaval. Patients become overwhelmed and seek admission by making
suicidal gestures or attempts. As outpatients, they remain stably unstable.
In less obvious forms, BPD can present a diagnostic challenge.
 Mood Disorders – affective/mood instability.
 Psychotic Disorders – micro/brief psychotic episodes.
 Substance Use Disorders – impulsivity and affective instability.
 Dissociative Disorders – dissociates in response to stress.
 Sexual Identity Disorders – sexual and identity diffusion.
 Anxiety Disorders – obsessions, phobias, irritability.
 Eating Disorders – impulsivity with food.
22
Differential Diagnosis – “Depression”
 Considerable symptomatic overlap between depression and BPD.
 The mood disorder with greatest overlap is Persistent Depressive Disorder.
 BPD patients are chronically empty, bored and lonely, and have a
pervasively negative affect.
 In BPD vegetative signs are usually absent – anorexia, insomnia, fatigue, and
impaired concentration.
 There is a reactivity of mood symptoms to social situations.
23
Differential Diagnosis – “Bipolar Disorder”
Resemblance between BPD and Cyclothymia
 Amplitude of mood change is dramatic enough to be included in the
cyclothymic spectrum.
 BPD rarely encompasses the required number of criteria for hypomania.
 Elevated mood states in BPD almost always have interpersonal precipitants.
 Personality Disorder diagnosis requires an enduring pattern that can usually
traced back to adolescence.
24
Etiology/Presumed Etiology
1.
Biological/Genetic Factors
 A significant genetic contribution exists.
 BPD is five times more common in first degree relatives.
 The extended families of borderline patients have increased rates of
Substance Use Disorders, Cluster B Personality Disorders (particularly
ASPD), Conduct Disorder, Learning Disabilities, and Mood Disorders.
25
2.
Neurochemical Factors

As children, borderline patients commonly found to have had
neuropsychological difficulties.

Neurological soft signs are often found – eg. impaired
coordination, balance, motor performance and gait
abnormalities.

Learning disabilities, ADHD and EEG abnormalities often found.
These findings point to pathology in the pre-frontal cortex, causing
impairment in executive functioning and leading to the marked
impulsivity seen in BPD.

It is postulated that dysregulation of serotonin and/or
dopamine systems may exist in BPD.
26
3.
Psychosocial Contributions

The psychosocial contributions to BPD become particularly
apparent when carbon copies can seemingly be made of
many patients personal histories.
The following historical adversities were the most common:

Sexual abuse

Physical abuse

Extreme neglect
27
 Inpatient Management

Hospitalization for patients with BPD is controversial.

Patients may be admitted in order to avoid possible medical/legal
repercussions.

There is little, if any, evidence to indicate that hospitalization results in
any enduring effectiveness.

Admitting patients may reinforce that they are unable to take
control of their own lives.

Institutions may function as containers for borderline impulses.

Patients arrive in a state of crisis and the inpatient unit becomes a
holding tank in which patients may regress, as their needs are largely
cared for by others.

Short admissions, adherence towards routines as a condition of
admission, and setting firm limits on behavior may help limit
regression.
28
 Longer Term Admissions

The majority of patients can probably be managed with 24 to 72 hour
admissions to help settle the crisis.

Some common indications for longer term treatment are:

Repeated failures of brief hospitalization and outpatient
treatment.

Associated Axis I conditions.

Escalating violent or self-destructive behavior.

Severe or psychotic symptoms.

A chaotic environment that provides no social support.

Diagnostic uncertainty.

Substance withdrawal requiring medical management.

Obvious losses that are beyond the typical range of psychosocial
difficulties faced by the patient.
29
Suicidal Behavior in BPD
Joel Paris (2002) reviewed 170 papers on BPD and suicide/suicidality with
the following results:
 Several articles report 10% rate of completed suicide.
 Only a minority of suicidal threats and behaviors occurred during
active treatment: the majority appeared to take place later on when
patients do not recover and efforts to help them have been
unsuccessful.
 Completed suicides appear to be more common in patients in their
30’s.
 Suicide is more likely when patients have comorbid depression and/or
substance use disorders.
30
Things to Remember
 Mood symptoms are different from those with Mood Disorders and respond
differently to antidepressant medication.
 Self-injury is behaviors that include mutilation, burning, biting, intentional sun
burn, hair pulling, hitting, abuse of medication, substance misuse,
promiscuity and accident pronness.
 75% of habitual self-mutilators use multiple methods, which undergo
substitution over time.
31
Pharmacotherapy
 SSRI’s have been found to decrease impulsivity and the frequency
of self-harm.
 The mood stabilizers have been used primarily for behavioral
discontrol and reducing impulsivity.
 Anxiolytics frequently sought by BPD patients.
 Benzodiazepines pose considerable addiction risks, as well as
potentially worsening impulse control through disinhibition.
 Antipsychotics indicated for short-term control of psychosis and
delusions.
 Novel antipsychotics may provide mood stabilization.
Group Therapy
32

A useful form of treatment for borderline patients either alone or combined with
individual psychotherapy.

A group setting may allow patients to explore new ways of dealing with people in a
protective environment.

Dialectical behavior therapy.


Developed by Marsha Linehan from Cognitive Behavior Therapy.
DBT assumptions

Patients are doing the best that they can.

Patients willing to improve.

Patients need to do better, try harder and be more motivated to change.

Patients may not have caused all of their own problems, but they have to solve
them anyway.

The lives of suicidal borderline individuals are unbearable.

Patients must learn new behaviors.

Patients cannot fail in therapy.

Therapist treating borderline patients need support.
33
THE END