Borderline personality disorder in young adults: features of psychopathology and patterns of course

Abstract

To identify the psychopathological features of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adolescence, determine the trajectory of its further course, and develop criteria for differential diagnosis. Clinical/psychopathological and psychometric methods were used to study 143 patients. The patients were divided into two groups: a clinical group - 73 patients, who were inpatients or outpatients in the clinical departments of the Mental Health Research Center (MHRC) in 2019-2022, and a follow-up group - 70 patients who were inpatients or outpatients in the MHRC clinic in 2006-2010. The structure of BPD in adolescence was clinically heterogeneous, which allowed distinguishing three typological varieties: with phenomena of «affective storm», which was characterized by the dominance of affective disorders, including after completion of adolescence, with some stabilization of personality structure (type I); with the dominance of addictive patterns of the type of «adrenalinomania», in which one of the key positions was occupied by craving impairments, with a constant need to search for new extreme hobbies, the use of psychoactive substances, which persisted after the end of adolescence (type II); with the predominance of «cognitive dissociation», which was characterized by the most polymorphic picture of disorders, with the predominance of self-identification disorders with dissociative disorders that retain their severity after the end of adolescence (type III). An integrative assessment of outcomes showed that rather favorable results (47.37%) (χ2=23.37, p=0.001) prevailed at type I, type II was characterized by rather unfavorable (59.26%) and unfavorable results (22.22%) (χ2=12.75, p=0.013) and type III by rather unfavorable (79.17%) and unfavorable (8.33%) outcomes (χ2=16.75, p=0.002). In the nosological evaluation of the follow-up group, 80.0% of patients were diagnosed with BPD, in the rest of the patients there was a change in diagnosis: in 14.3% for schizotypal disorder, in 5.7% for an attack-like form of schizophrenia (χ2=13.8, p=0.008; χ2=14.5, p=0.006). BPD in adolescence was confirmed in the majority of cases in adulthood. The results confirm that the typological variants of BPD are of prognostic value and can serve to further develop therapeutic and socio-rehabilitation measures.