Am J Psychiatry 1980; 137:165-173
Copyright © 1980 by American Psychiatric Association
Clinical features of the borderline personality disorder
JC Perry and GL Klerman
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.
