Outcomes in women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in adolescence

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the outcomes of patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) prior to age 18.

Method: In a group of 47 adolescent girls assessed over a 10 year period, 31 had a past diagnosis of BPD while 16 had not met criteria. Subjects were assessed with the SCID-I, the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB), the SCL-90-R, the Social Adjustment Scale (SAS-SR), the Affective Lability Scale (ALS), the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS), the Continuous Performance Test (CPT), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and the Attention Network Task (ANT).

Results: 4.3 years after initial presentation (mean age=19.6), only 11 index patients still met criteria for BPD and no new cases developed. Those who did not remit were significantly more likely to have a current episode of major depressive disorder, lifetime substance use disorder, and self-reported childhood sexual abuse. Those who still met BPD criteria also scored higher on the ALS and the total severity scale as well as several subscales of the SCL-90, but not on other measures.

Conclusions: These findings support the validity of an adolescent diagnosis of BPD and show that the majority of cases that develop in early adolescence can be expected to remit within 4 years.

Keywords: adolescent; borderline personality disorder; longitudinal course.