Relationship between clinical symptoms and EEG findings in borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) was diagnosed in female patients (N = 41) between the ages of 18 and 30 using the Diagnostic Interview for Borderline Patients (DIB) and DSM-III. Comparing the EEG findings of BPD (N = 18) and non-BPD (N = 21) groups, there were no EEG findings characteristic of BPD. We also assessed the relationship between the EEG findings and DIB items. Positive spikes appeared in patients with high scores for Impulse Action Patterns, while wave and spike phantoms were observed in patients with high scores for Interpersonal Relations. Dividing the patients into BPD and non-BPD groups, a similar tendency to that observed from an analysis of all patients was observed in the non-BPD group, but no such tendency was observed in the BPD group. The results suggest that BPD patients include those in whom vulnerability of cerebral function plays an important role in the development of these two clinical symptoms as well as those in whom vulnerability of cerebral function plays almost no pathogenic role.