Borderline personality disorder

Diagnostic Criteria

From: http://www.mentalhealth.com/fr20.html

A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

• frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.

• a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation

• identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self

• impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.

• recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior

• affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)

• chronic feelings of emptiness

• inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)

• transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms