Relationship between depression and borderline personality disorder

The frequent occurrence of depressive symptoms in patients with borderline personality disorder has generated considerable interest in the nature of t he relationship between borderline personality disorder and the depressive disorders. Data from the perspectives of phenomenology, biology, family his tory, course of illness, comorbidity patterns, and treatment response have been bought to bear on the question. Reviews based on research available by 1985 and 1991, respectively, arrived at differing conclusions: (1) that bo th disorders shared common but non-specific sources, and (2) that the two d isorders were unrelated but co-occurred because of the high prevalence of e ach. Since the time of these reviews, additional evidence has become availa ble from a wider range of biological investigations, better controlled como rbidity studies, studies of the relationship of psychosocial stressors to t he course of each disorder and neuroimaging studies. In reviewing the more recent findings, we propose the less parsimonious hypothesis that the disor ders co-occur, both because they share some common biological features and because the psychosocial sequella of each can contribute to the development of the other. Published 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.