Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:1002-1007
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Substance use in borderline personality disorder
RA Dulit, MR Fyer, GL Haas, T Sullivan and AJ Frances
Department of Psychiatry, New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center, NY 10021.
The authors investigated the prevalence of substance abuse in 137
inpatients with DSM-III borderline personality disorder. Ninety-two (67%)
of these patients were given DSM-III substance use disorder diagnosis. The
most frequently used substances were alcohol and sedative-hypnotics. When
substance abuse was not used as a diagnostic criterion for borderline
personality disorder, 32 (23%) of the 137 patients no longer met borderline
criteria. These patients differed significantly from the rest of the
patients in severity and course of illness. These data suggest that there
might be a subgroup of borderline patients for whom substance use plays a
primary role in the development of borderline psychopathology.
