Are There Borderlines in Britain?

Abstract

This study extends the series of investigations of the borderline concept to a British inpatient population. It compares patient's ratings and diagnoses according to DSM-III, the international Classification of Diseases, ninth version (ICD-9), Gunderson's Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB), and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory data. A subpopulation of British inpatients was identified by DIB and DSM-III borderline criteria. All were given ICD-9 personality disorder diagnoses by their British consulting psychiatrists. The date support the concept of borderline personality disorder in the sense that there is a significant level of agreement between the DIB and DSM-III diagnoses, but the clinical and psychometric differentiation of borderline from other types of personality disorders, as well as the interrelationship between the borderline personality disorder and a concomitant depressive state, remain to be demonstrated before the validity of the borderline concept is established.