Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:192-198
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
The nosologic status of borderline personality: clinical and polysomnographic study
HS Akiskal, BI Yerevanian, GC Davis, D King and H Lemmi
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.
