Am J Psychiatry 1991; 148:1378-1385
Copyright © 1991 by American Psychiatric Association
Affective and impulsive personality disorder traits in the relatives of patients with borderline personality disorder
JM Silverman, L Pinkham, TB Horvath, EF Coccaro, H Klar, S Schear, S Apter, M Davidson, RC Mohs and LJ Siever
Psychiatry Service, Bronx VA Medical Center, NY 10468.
OBJECTIVE: This study tested the hypothesis that the risk for affective and
impulsive personality disorder traits commonly found in patients with
borderline personality disorder would be greater in the first- degree
relatives of probands with borderline personality disorder than in two
comparison groups. METHOD: Blind family history interviews were conducted
with family informants to assess the extent to which first- degree
relatives of 29 probands with borderline personality disorder, 22 probands
with other personality disorders who met three or fewer of the criteria for
borderline personality disorder, and 43 probands with schizophrenia
fulfilled operationalized criteria for the two kinds of personality
disorder traits and for other diagnostic categories. The crude proportions
of adult relatives with each diagnosis, as well as the age-adjusted morbid
risks, were assessed in the three groups of relatives. RESULTS: The risks
for affective and impulsive personality disorder traits were independently
greater in the 129 relatives of the borderline probands than in the 105
relatives of the probands with other personality disorders and the 218
relatives of the schizophrenic probands. There was no similarly greater
risk for any other psychiatric disorder assessed, including major affective
disorder. In addition, the relatives of borderline probands with current or
past major depressive disorder showed a greater risk for major affective
disorders than the relatives of never-depressed probands with other
personality disorders but not the relatives of never-depressed borderline
probands. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest familial transmission of the
hallmark borderline-related personality characteristics and raise the
possibility that these familial traits may be partially independent.
