History of childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms and borderline personality disorder: a controlled study

Abstract

To evaluate the association between history of childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adulthood, the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) was administered to 42 consecutively admitted BPD subjects, 94 consecutively admitted controls with any cluster B personality disorder (PD) diagnosis other than BPD, 38 consecutively admitted controls with any cluster A or cluster C PD diagnosis but no cluster B PD diagnosis, and 69 consecutively admitted controls with no PD diagnosis. A fourth control group was composed by 201 nonclinical volunteers. According to Dunn-Bonferroni contrasts, BPD subjects showed a significantly higher mean WURS total score compared to all control groups (minimum t = 7.93, maximum t = 11.63, all Ps <.001). These contrasts remained significant even controlling for potential confounders such as antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) diagnosis, gender, inpatient status, and axis I diagnoses. The results of this study seem to support the hypothesis of an association between history of childhood ADHD symptoms and adult BPD diagnosis.