Adolescent alcohol use disorders predict adult borderline personality

Abstract

Background: This study investigated adolescent alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and other characteristics as predictors of adult borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms.

Methods: Adolescents with AUDs (n = 355) were recruited from clinical treatment sources and adolescents without AUDs (n = 169) were recruited from the community. During an adolescent assessment (age 16+/-1.3), childhood physical and/or sexual abuse history, AUDs and associated psychiatric disorders were measured via semi-structured interviews. Symptoms of BPD were measured in a young adult follow-up assessment (age 22+/-2.4). Latent class analysis was utilized to classify individuals into four categories based upon BPD symptom profiles.

Results: Multinomial regression models indicated that adolescent AUDs and other psychiatric disorders mediated the relationship between child physical and/or sexual abuse and adult BPD latent class.

Conclusions: Results were consistent with a developmental conceptualization of BPD, with AUDs and other adolescent psychopathology antecedents representing developmentally relevant forms of dysregulation, and in their more severe forms culminating in borderline symptomatology.