BPD Central

Seriously? Are You Surprised ByThis Borderline Personality Study?

And in other news around the globe, we have found that people who ride motorcycles are more prone to wearing black leather than women in nursing homes.

PROVIDENCE – A research team headed by a Rhode Island Hospital psychiatrist reveals that persons who live with borderline personality disorder, or BPD, experience physical and mental difficulties that rival those associated with the more prevalent and better-known bipolar disorder.

Dr. Mark Zimmerman's study was published this week in the online edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry. BPD is a severe emotional disorder characterized by impulsive behaviors, anger, irritability, poor self image and fear of abandonment.

"The level of psychosocial morbidity and suicidality associated with BPD is as great, or greater, than that experienced by patients with bipolar disorder," Zimmerman, director of outpatient psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital and director of the Rhode Island Methods to Improve Diagnostic Assessment and Services (MIDAS) project, said in a release.

"From a public health perspective, improving the detection and treatment of BPD is as imperative as diagnosing and treating bipolar disorders."

According to National Institute of Mental Health statistics cited by Rhode Island Hospital, an estimated 1.6 of Americans are diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, compared to an estimated 2.6 percent who live with with bipolar disorder.

"Despite the clinical and public health significance of both of these disorders, it sometimes seems as if BPD lives in the shadow of bipolar disorder," said Zimmerman. "Bipolar disorder is a widely researched, well-publicized, well-funded topic. By contrast, BPD is seldom discussed and it is not included in the Global Burden of Disease study, a comprehensive registry that quantifies diseases by cost, mortality, geography, risk and other factors."

Zimmerman is a faculty member of the Alpert Medical School of Brown University's department of psychiatry and human behavior. Joining him from that department on the study were William Ellison, Theresa A. Morgan, Diane Young, Iwona Chelminski, and Kristy Dalrymple.