MENSTRUAL-CYCLE INFLUENCES ON MOOD AND BEHAVIOR IN WOMEN WITH BORDERLINE PERSONALITY-DISORDER

Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often report that affective and impulsive symptoms worsen premenstrually. We used prospe ctive rating techniques developed for the diagnosis of premenstrual sy ndrome to investigate the association between phase of the menstrual c ycle and affective and impulsive symptoms in 14 patients with BPD. Sub jects with confirmed diagnoses of BPD completed daily ratings of these symptoms for 2-4 menstrual cycles. An association between symptom sev erity and phase of menstrual cycle was not found. Despite the finding that all subjects interviewed following the study reported having expe rienced a premenstrual worsening of symptoms, none of the subjects met criteria for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. The limitations of this pilot study are discussed.