The REM latencies of 24 nonschizotypal borderline outpatients--who were
not in the midst of a major depressive episode--were in the range of those
of 30 patients with primary major depression but were significantly shorter
than those of 16 patients with nonborderline personality disorders and 14
nonpsychiatric controls. Also, more of the borderline subjects had lifetime
diagnoses of affective disorder, such as dysthymic, cyclothymic, and
bipolar II disorder, and of a spectrum of anxiety and somatization
disorders. The authors conclude that contemporary operational criteria for
borderline disorder identify a wide net of temperamental disorders with
strong affective coloring rather than a unitary nosologic entity.
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