Utilization of primary care physicians in borderline personality

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• General Medicine

Background:

• Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with high healthcare utilization.
• Primary care physician utilization by BPD patients remains understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine primary care physician use patterns in individuals with BPD features.
• To test the hypothesis that BPD outpatients see more primary care physicians and specialists.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study of 389 internal medicine outpatients.
• Self-report surveys assessed BPD features, number of primary care physicians, treatment settings, and specialists seen over 5 years.

Main Results:

• Patients with BPD features reported seeing significantly more primary care physicians and specialists.
• No significant difference was found in the number of primary care treatment settings utilized.

Conclusions:

• Borderline personality symptomatology is linked to increased use of primary care physicians and specialists.
• This may reflect psychological aspects of BPD and general healthcare over-utilization.