Comorbidity of borderline personality disorder with other personality disorders in hospitalized adolescents and adults

Objective: The authors examined the comorbidity of borderline personality d isorder with other personality disorders in a series of consecutively admit ted adolescents. For comparison, the comorbidity of borderline personality disorder with other personality disorders was also examined in a series of adults consecutively admitted to the same hospital during the same period. Method: A total of 138 adolescents and 117 adults were reliably assessed wi th the Personality Disorder Examination, a semistructured diagnostic interv iew for DSM-III-R personality disorders. Sixty-eight adolescents and 50 adu lts met the diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder. The co -occurrence of other personality disorders in the group of subjects with bo rderline personality disorder was statistically compared to that in the gro up without borderline personality disorder, for adolescents and adults sepa rately. Results: For the adults, Bonferroni-corrected chi-square analysis revealed significant diagnostic co-occurrence with borderline personality disorder f or antisocial personality disorder only. For the adolescents, borderline pe rsonality disorder showed significant co-occurrence with schizotypal and pa ssive-aggressive personality disorders. Conclusions: In the adults, borderline personality disorder was significant ly comorbid only with another cluster B disorder. The adolescents, by compa rison, displayed a broader pattern of comorbidity of borderline personality disorder, encompassing aspects of clusters A and C. These results suggest that the borderline personality disorder diagnosis may represent a more dif fuse range of psychopathology in adolescents than in adults.