Self-esteem in patients with borderline and avoidant personality disorders

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Self-esteem is crucial for subjective self-experience.
• Understanding self-esteem in personality disorders (PDs) offers insights into self-pathology.
• Avoidant personality disorder (APD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are associated with significant psychological distress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare self-esteem levels between patients diagnosed with APD and BPD.
• To investigate the relationship between depression, personality pathology, and self-esteem in these patient groups.
• To test the hypotheses that both APD and BPD patients exhibit low self-esteem, with APD patients reporting lower levels than BPD patients.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Index of Self Esteem questionnaire for self-esteem assessment.
• Included patients diagnosed with one or more personality disorders within a treatment trial setting.
• Employed statistical analyses to compare self-esteem scores and examine the influence of depression and personality pathology.

Main Results:

• Confirmed that both APD and BPD patients reported low self-esteem.
• Found a significant difference, with APD patients exhibiting lower self-esteem than BPD patients.
• Demonstrated that higher depression levels correlated with lower self-esteem, and both APD and BPD pathology explained variance in self-esteem beyond depression.

Conclusions:

• Patients with APD and BPD experience clinically relevant low self-esteem.
• APD is associated with lower self-esteem compared to BPD.
• Self-esteem is a key component of self-pathology in personality disorders, warranting further investigation.