Borderline Personality Disorder: Prevalence & Psychiatric Comorbidity among Male Offenders on Probation in Sweden

INTRODUCTION:

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severely disabling condition, associated with substantially increased risk of deliberate self-harm and, particularly in men, also with interpersonal violence and other criminal behavior. Although BPD might be common among prison inmates, little is known about prevalence and psychiatric comorbidity in probationers and parolees.

RESULTS:

We ascertained a final DSM-5 BPD prevalence rate of 19.8%. The most common current comorbid disorders among subjects with BPD were antisocial personality disorder (91%), major depressive disorder (82%), substance dependence (73%), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (70%), and alcohol dependence (64%). Individuals diagnosed with BPD had significantly more current psychiatric comorbidity than interviewed participants not fulfilling BPD criteria. Participants with BPD also reported substantially more symptoms of ADHD, anxiety and depression compared to all subjects without BPD.

CONCLUSIONS:

BPD affected one fifth of probationers and was related to serious mental ill-health known to affect recidivism risk. The findings suggest further study of possible benefits of improved identification and treatment of BPD in offender populations.

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By: Wetterborg D1, Långström N2, Andersson G3, Enebrink P4.

• 1Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: dan.wetterborg@ki.se.
• 2Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden; Swedish Prison and Probation Services R&D Unit, 601 80 Norrköping, Sweden. Electronic address: niklas.langstrom@ki.se.
• 3Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden. Electronic address: gerhard.andersson@liu.se.
• 4Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: pia.enebrink@ki.se.