Obesity, borderline personality symptomatology, and body image among women in a psychiatric outpatient setting.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among body weight, borderline personality symptomatology, and several measures of body image among women presenting for psychiatric evaluation. Forty-eight women in a university-based psychiatric outpatient clinic completed the borderline personality scale of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-Revised (PDQ-R) and several measures of body image and indicated lifetime prevalence of depression histories. PDQ-R scores correlated (r = 0.44, p < 0.01) with body mass index (BMI). Also, there were significant relationships between PDQ-R scores and measures of body image even after controlling for BMI. In a psychiatric outpatient setting, borderline personality symptomatology is associated with higher body weight as well as body-image issues that are not necessarily due to larger body size.