The authors compared 18 patients diagnosed as having borderline
personality disorder with 102 patients with orther diagnoses in a
psychiatric emergency service. They found that 81 of 129 items obtained
from the literature on borderline personality disorder were significantly
more characteristic of the patients diagnosed as borderline than patients
with other diagnoses. When these items were included in a Borderline
Personality Scale they significantly distinguished patients diagnosed as
borderline from those with other diagnoses. The patients diagnosed as
borderline were not psychotic but were angry, demanding, and difficult to
interview; specific histories, interpersonal relationships, defenses, and
other judgments of personality functioning were also prominent
characteristics of these patients. On the basis of these findings and other
studies, the authors maintain that the patients diagnosed as borderline
actually had a borderline personality disorder.
Abstract Teaser