Am J Psychiatry 1991; 148:1541-1547
Copyright © 1991 by American Psychiatric Association
A prospective follow-up study of so-called borderline children
DP Lofgren, J Bemporad, J King, K Lindem and G O'Driscoll
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to ascertain the current diagnosis
in late adolescence or early adulthood of children who had previously been
diagnosed as "borderline." METHOD: This was a prospective follow-up study
of 19 of a group of 32 children (ages 6-10) who had been diagnosed as
"borderline" during their treatment at the Massachusetts Mental Health
Center approximately 10-20 years earlier. Life history information was
collected, and axis I and axis II diagnoses were assigned by use of the
Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R and unstructured clinical
interviews. RESULTS: The most significant finding was that, contrary to
expectations, there were no axis I diagnoses of affective disorders or
schizophrenia. On the other hand, axis II diagnoses were prevalent, and the
overall outcome for the subjects was poor. Family stability was the only
significant predictor of the relatively good outcome of five of the
subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The childhood borderline diagnosis appears to be an
antecedent of an array of adult personality disorders, but it is not
associated with the adult borderline personality disorder per se, nor with
axis I diagnoses.
