Borderline personality and obsessive-compulsive symptoms

Diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD) are diverse, covering a broad range of symptoms. One criterion, self-mutilation, is a behavioral excess that may be considered a predictor of other psychopathological states. The present study sought to determine the extent to which two groups of BPD patients, those who mutilate and those who do not, differed on measures of general psychopathology, depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Results indicate that the only source of significant variation was the level of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, with mutilators exhibiting greater symptomatology. The findings from this study support the idea that self-mutilation is a more severe form of psychopathology relative to the rest of the BPD population. These results are interpreted based on the affect regulation model of self-mutilation, and contrasted with contemporary models of impulse control in relation to obsessive-compulsive disorder.