Borderline Personality Pathology in an At Risk Mental State Sample

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Transient psychotic symptoms in borderline personality disorder (BPD) can mimic early psychosis.
• This overlap may lead to misclassification of BPD patients as at-risk for psychosis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine borderline symptoms in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis.
• To assess the impact of borderline symptoms on the transition rate to manifest psychosis.

Main Methods:

• Seventy help-seeking individuals from an early psychosis recognition center were assessed.
• Borderline symptoms were evaluated using the Borderline Symptom Checklist.

Main Results:

• A significant correlation was found between borderline symptomatology and positive symptoms of psychosis.
• No association was observed between borderline symptoms and basic symptoms of psychosis.
• Borderline symptomatology did not influence the transition rate to schizophrenia.

Conclusions:

• BPD should not be an exclusion criterion for psychosis screening or early intervention.
• Individuals with BPD, particularly those without core psychotic symptoms, do not automatically require psychosis risk screening.