Abstract
Objective
As part of a larger study investigating biological risk factors for bipolar disorder (BD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD), we investigated the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses presented by young BD or BPD offspring. With respect to the scarcity of studies interested in psychiatric disorders among BPD offspring, we have chosen to report these results despite the small sample size for a prevalence study.
Method
We recruited 21 BD and 22 BPD offspring and 23 control subjects. All subjects were assessed with a structured interview.
Results
Our main finding suggests that BPD offspring present a higher rate of psychiatric disorders compared to BD offspring. Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder was the most prevalent disorder.
Conclusion
Our results contribute to the evidence that offspring of patients with BPD, are at high risk with regard to their mental health and deserve both more research and special attention at the clinical level.