Heterogeneity of borderline personality disorder symptoms in help-seeking adolescents

• Published in: Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation Vol. 8; no. 1; p. 9
• Main Authors: Cavelti, Marialuisa, Lerch, Stefan, Ghinea, Denisa, Fischer-Waldschmidt, Gloria, Resch, Franz, Koenig, Julian, Kaess, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 26-02-2021; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adolescence; Adults; Adverse childhood experiences; Age; Antisocial personality disorder; Borderline personality disorder; Categorical and dimensional models of personality; Child development; Emotionally unstable personality disorder; Factor mixture models; Help seeking behavior; Impulsivity; Investigations; Mental disorders; Psychology, Pathological; Self destructive behavior; Suicides & suicide attempts; Teenagers; Youth; Factor mixture models; Adolescence; Categorical and dimensional models of personality; Borderline personality disorder; Emotionally unstable personality disorder
• ISSN: 2051-6673; 2051-6673
• DOI: 10.1186/s40479-021-00147-9

The heterogeneous presentation of borderline personality disorder (BPD) represents a clinical challenge. There is an ongoing scientific debate whether the heterogeneity can best be understood in terms of qualitative (categorical) or quantitative (dimensional) differences between individuals. The present study examined the latent structure of BPD in adolescents.
Five-hundred and six outpatients aged 12 to 17 years with risk-taking and/or self-harming behavior were assessed at baseline and one-year follow-up. Latent class analysis (corresponding with the categorical approach), factor analysis (corresponding with the dimensional approach), and factor mixture models (allowing for both categorical and dimensional aspects) were applied to the DSM-IV BPD criteria.
The best fitting model distinguished between a majority class with high probabilities for all BPD criteria ("borderline group") and a minority class with high probabilities for the impulsivity and anger criteria only ("impulsive group"). Sex significantly affected latent class membership, and both a latent factor and age explained within-class variability. The borderline group primarily consisted of females, frequently reported adverse childhood experiences, scored high on the emotion dysregulation and inhibitedness personality traits, and was associated with internalizing psychopathology. In contrast, the impulsive group primarily consisted of males, scored high on the dissocial behavior personality trait, and was associated with externalizing psychopathology. After one year, the two groups showed similar clinical improvement.
The study provides evidence for two distinct subgroups of adolescents with BPD features that resemble the subtypes of the ICD-10 emotionally unstable personality disorder. More research is needed to further investigate the diagnostic stability of the two groups over time and potential differential treatment indications.