Abstract
Most empirical research on borderline personality disorder (BPD) draws its participant pool from clinical samples. Individuals with BPD recruited from clinical settings, however, may represent a unique subset of those with the illness. The present study sought to determine (a) whether individuals with diagnosable BPD could be readily ascertained from the community and (b) how such individuals would compare to those drawn from a clinical setting on various dimensions. We found that the clinical sample showed a somewhat more severe expression of illness, a different pattern of BPD symptoms, somewhat greater Axis I comorbidity, and more medication and prior hospitalization than the community sample. On other clinical dimensions (e.g., depression, anxiety, dissociation, positive and negative affect) however, the two groups were quite similar. Results suggest that some research questions might be addressed better with participants from community samples, while others might be better suited to clinical samples.
Highlights
The primary goal of this report is to address two questions: (1) Can a sample of individuals with DSM-IV borderline personality disorder (BPD) be readily ascertained from a community population? and (2) if so, do clinical BPD samples and community based BPD samples differ reliably on various phenomenological dimensions? To address the first question, we report on our ascertainment strat
This study sought to determine whether persons with BPD could be readily ascertained from a nonclinical community population, and whether such individuals differed demographically and clinically from those ascertained from a clinical setting
Our strategy of advertising for personality traits associated with BPD yielded a community sample of individuals who met DSM-IV criteria for BPD
Summary
DETECTING INDIVIDUALS WITH BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER IN THE COMMUNITY: AN ASCERTAINMENT STRATEGY AND COMPARISON WITH A HOSPITAL SAMPLE. A common, but often unstated assumption is that participants who meet diagnostic criteria for a particular disorder will tend to show a similar profile of symptoms, even if they are ascertained from different settings (see Maher, 2003). This may or may not be the case, in the case of personality disorders
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