What is Borderline Personality Disorder?Borderline personality disorder is a condition in which people experience impulsive or unstable moods and feelings about themselves and others. The term "borderline" is used to describe the disorder's position between psychotic and neurotic disorders. With a number of underlying factors and symptoms, this disorder experienced much scrutiny in its discovery, but has since established a more concrete definition.
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Diagnostic Criteria
The following nine criterion have been established in order to diagnose a patient with borderline personality disorder:
1. Efforts made to avoid real or imagined abandonment
2. Pattern of intense and unstable relationships
3. Disturbance to identity
4. Self-damaging impulsivity
5. Recurring suicidal or self-mutilating behavior or threats
6. Affective instability
7. Chronic feelings of emptiness
8. Inappropriate, intense feelings of anger
9. Paranoia or severe dissociative symptoms
1. Efforts made to avoid real or imagined abandonment
2. Pattern of intense and unstable relationships
3. Disturbance to identity
4. Self-damaging impulsivity
5. Recurring suicidal or self-mutilating behavior or threats
6. Affective instability
7. Chronic feelings of emptiness
8. Inappropriate, intense feelings of anger
9. Paranoia or severe dissociative symptoms
Risk Factors
While the cause of BPD is unknown, there are a number of potential risk factors:
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BPD in America
- 1%-2% of the general population are diagnosed with BPD
- Most common personality disorder for people to receive treatment
- 10% of all psychiatric outpatients have BPD
- 15%-20% of all psychiatric inpatients have BPD
- 10% mortality rate by suicide
Emma Harmeyer, 2012