• Frances R Frankenburg and Mary C Zanarini.
• Laboratory for the Study of Adult Development, McLean Hospital, Belmont, and the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02478, USA. ffrankenburg@mclean.harvard.edu
• J Clin Psychiatry. 2004 Dec 1; 65 (12): 1660-5.

ObjectiveThe physical health of patients with borderline personality disorder has not been well studied. The purpose of this study was to compare the physical health, lifestyle choices affecting physical health, and health care utilization of patients with remitted and nonremitted borderline personality disorder.Method200 patients who no longer met the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB-R) and DSM-III-R criteria for borderline personality disorder and 64 patients who still met study criteria for borderline personality disorder were interviewed from June 1992 through December 2001 concerning their physical health, lifestyle choices, and use of medical care 6 years after their initial participation in a larger study of the longitudinal course of borderline personality disorder.ResultsRemitted borderline patients were found to be significantly less likely than non-remitted borderline patients to have a history of a "syndrome-like" condition (i.e., chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, or temporomandibular joint syndrome) (p = .049) or to have a history of obesity (p = .026), osteoarthritis (p = .025), diabetes (p = .001), hypertension (p = .028), back pain (p < .001), or urinary incontinence (p < .001). They were also found to be significantly less likely to report pack per day smoking (p = .002), daily consumption of alcohol (p = .003), lack of regular exercise (p = .006), daily use of sleep medications (p < .001), and sustained use of pain medications (p = .026). In addition, remitted borderline patients were significantly less likely than nonremitted borderline patients to have had at least 1 medically related emergency room visit (p < .001), 1 medical hospitalization (p = .003), or 1 of each (p< .001).ConclusionsThe failure to remit from borderline personality disorder seems to be associated with a heightened risk of suffering from chronic physical conditions, making poor health-related lifestyle choices, and using costly forms of medical services.

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