Borderline personality and weight divergence in adulthood

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is an Axis II dysfunction characterized by extremist thinking (i.e., black/white thinking and thinking in absolutes). In keeping with this cognitive style, and based upon our clinical observations, we wondered whether a possible behavioral marker of extremism, weight divergence (i.e., a large difference between lowest and highest weights in adulthood), might be associated with BPD. Among 95 women psychiatric inpatients, we explored lowest adult weight, current weight, and highest adult weight as well as BPD using two self-report measures for the disorder, the borderline personality disorder scale of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 (PDQ-4) and the Self-Harm Inventory (SHI). Results indicated statistically significantly correlations between increasing weight divergence and both BPD measures. Further analyses indicated that this relationship was not explained by overall body size or history of binge eating behavior. Findings suggest that, among psychiatric inpatients, weight divergence in adulthood may be a potential indicator of BPD.