Sources of Stigma and its Relation to Internalized Stigma in Women with Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has a high prevalence, presenting with self-injurious behaviors, suicide attempts and other psychiatric comorbidities. This condition is accompanied by high levels of stigma and self-stigma, driving to deleterious effects on prognosis. The present study aimed to compare demographic and clinical characteristics of women diagnosed with BPD with low and high internalized stigma and to address internalized stigma dimensions severity (disclosure, positive aspects, and discrimination) between the source of perceived stigma.

A total of 106 women with a diagnosis of BPD were evaluated for sociodemographic data, sources of stigma, the severity of the symptomatology and internalized stigma, evaluated with the Borderline Evaluation of Severity Over Time (BEST) and the Spanish version of King's Internalized Stigma Scale (ISS), respectively.

Participants with high internalized stigma reported greater symptom severity. Regarding the reported sources of stigma, in almost all sources of stigma, discrimination was perceived as greater (p < 0.05) (friends, co-workers, doctors, psychiatrists and nurses) as well as the perceived global internalized stigma (p < 0.05) for friends, co-workers and nursing staff.

It is necessary to address stigmatizing behaviors by health personnel and the support network close to the patient in addition to improving awareness about associated internalized stigma which is related to worse outcomes.