H. Steiger et al., PROGNOSTIC UTILITY OF SUBCOMPONENTS OF THE BORDERLINE PERSONALITY CONSTRUCT IN BULIMIA-NERVOSA, British journal of clinical psychology, 32, 1993, pp. 187-197
We examined various components of the 'borderline personality construc
t' as predictors of initial response to treatment in 61 bulimic patien
ts. At pre-treatment, a 'borderline/non-borderline' distinction was es
tablished using DSM III-R criteria, and other components of 'borderlin
e' pathology ('borderline traits', object-relations disturbances, mala
daptive defences and mood pathology) were assessed using self-report.
Self-reported eating and psychiatric symptoms were obtained at initial
and three-month evaluations. Using hierarchical regression analyses,
we controlled effects of initial eating and psychiatric symptoms, and
then evaluated various measures of the borderline construct as predict
ors of later symptom severity. Categorical borderline PD diagnoses wer
e linked to poorer response on eating attitudes and symptoms, and fine
-grained analyses indicated that this prognostic effect might be media
ted by mood and object-relations disturbances. Findings therefore seem
ed to isolate specific subcomponents of borderline personality patholo
gy that predicted poorer response on eating symptoms.