Temperament, but not childhood trauma, distinguishes borderline personality disorder from bipolar disorder and ADHD

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flowchart of the recruitment process, starting with all psychiatric patients diagnosed with either borderline personality disorder (BPD), bipolar disorder (BD), and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) between May 2005 and October 2010, at a specific outpatient clinic.

Table

	Frequency of endorsement
Item	BPD (N = 19)	Non-BPD (N = 95)	OR	95% CI
General trauma item	0.90	0.86	2.85	0.34	23.78
T1. Natural disaster	0.00	0.02	0	0	Unable to estimate
T2. Serious accident	0.16	0.21	0.7	0.18	2.69
T3. Serious personal injury	0.26	0.16	1.9	0.59	6.16
T6. Serious injury/illness of parent	0.37	0.32	1.26	0.45	3.57
T7. Separation of parents	0.53	0.48	1.18	0.44	3.21
T10. Serious illness/injury of sibling	0.38	0.23	4.56	1.61	12.9
T12. Serious injury of friend	0.37	0.24	1.83	0.64	5.25
T13. Observing death/serious injury of others	0.26	0.28	0.93	0.3	2.87
T15. Witnessing violence	0.43	0.33	1.57	0.56	4.42
T16. Family mental illness	0.68	0.43	2.85	0.99	8.24
T17. Alcoholic parents	0.16	0.18	0.84	0.22	3.25
T23. Seeing someone murdered	0.00	0.00
Physical abuse item	0.66	0.64	1.11	0.37	3.33
P2. Slapped in the face	0.29	0.38	0.68	0.22	2.11
P3. Burned with cigarette	0.05	0.03	1.74	0.15	19.73
P4. Punched or kicked	0.29	0.27	1.13	0.35	3.61
P6. Hit by thrown object	0.33	0.25	1.46	0.45	4.72
P8. Pushed or shoved	0.57	0.43	1.77	0.63	4.91
Emotional abuse item	0.74	0.55	2.3	0.76	6.97
E1. Often put down or ridiculed	0.32	0.33	0.94	0.32	2.77
E2. Often ignored or made to feel you didn’t count	0.47	0.32	1.89	0.69	5.21
E3. Often told you are no good	0.41	0.29	1.72	0.6	4.9
E5. Most of the time treated in cold or uncaring way	0.34	0.28	1.3	0.44	3.89
E7. Parents failed to understand your needs	0.68	0.48	2.35	0.81	6.78
Sexual abuse item	0.58	0.64	2.71	0.98	7.48
S5. Touched in intimate parts in way that was uncomfortable	0.53	0.27	3.08	1.1	8.58
S6. Someone rubbing genitals against you	0.21	0.11	2.13	0.58	7.86
S7. Forced to touch intimate parts	0.21	0.12	2.04	0.55	7.53
S8. Someone had genital sex against your will	0.32	0.16	2.5	0.81	7.75
S9. Forced to perform oral sex	0.21	0.08	2.99	0.76	11.72
S15. Forced to kiss someone in sexual way	0.16

ETI-SR-SF: Early Trauma Inventory-Self Report-Short Form; BPD: borderline personality disorder; BD: bipolar disorder; ADHD: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The non-BPD group consisted of patients diagnosed with either BD and/or ADHD.

Table 1. Descriptive data for the BPD group and the non-BPD group (BD/ADHD) in a young psychiatric sample.

	BPD (n = 19), n (%)	Non-BPD (n = 95), n (%)	p Value
Gender, n (%)
Women	17 (89.5%)	66 (69.5%)	.074
Men	2 (10.5%)	29 (30.5%)
Occupation^a
Full-time (employment/studies)	11 (61.1%)	70 (73.7%)	.329
Unemployed	2 (11.1%)	9 (9.5%)	.830
Sick leave	5 (27.8%)	16 (16.8%)	.274
Mean age (SD)	23.2 (2.2)	23.3 (2.1)	.769
Axis I and II diagnoses
Mean number of current axis I diagnoses (SD)	1.63 (1.01)	1.00 (1.06)	<.05
Mean number of axis II diagnoses (SD)^b	0.95 (1.27)	0.38 (0.81)	<.001

BPD: borderline personality disorder; SD: standard deviation.

^a Occupational characteristics for one participant in the BPD group are missing.

^b In 13 patients, data were missing for some other PDs, but not for BPD.

Table 2. Comparison of median TCI scores for the BPD group and the non-BPD group in a young psychiatric sample.

		Median score
TCI scale	No. of items	BPD (N = 19)	Non-BPD (N = 95)	p Value
Novelty seeking (NS)	40.0	27.0	24.0	.04
Harm avoidance (HA)	35.0	25.0	21.0	.01
Reward dependence (RD)	24.0	15.0	15.0	.58
Persistence (PS)	8.0	4.0	5.0	.75

BPD: borderline personality disorder; TCI: Temperament and Character Inventory.

p value refers to the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.

Table 3. Odds ratios for the four trauma categories of the ETI-SR-SF predicting BPD in a sample of young psychiatric patients with BPD or non-BPD, the latter constituted by BD and/or ADHD.

	Frequency of endorsement
Item	BPD (N = 19)	Non-BPD (N = 95)	Odds ratio	95% confidence interval
General trauma	95%	86%	2.85	0.34	23.78
Physical abuse	66%	64%	1.11	0.37	3.33
Emotional abuse	74%	55%	2.30	0.76	6.97
Sexual abuse	58%	64%	2.71	0.98	7.48

BPD: borderline personality disorder; BD: bipolar disorder; ADHD: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; ETI-SR-SF: Early Trauma Inventory Self Report-Short Form.

Table 4. Results of the logistic regression of temperament and trauma on a BPD diagnosis.

Predictors	Log odds ratios
Intercept	−4.97
Sex	1.14
NS	−0.04
HA	0.12
TT	−0.35
HA:TT	0
NS:TT	0.02
Tjur’s D	0.2
Pseudo-R^2	0.2

BPD: borderline personality disorder; TT: total trauma score; NS: novelty seeking; HA: harm avoidance.

Log odds ratios are presented. Results for both NS, HA, and TT as well as interaction effects between HA and TT and NS and TT are included. After Bonferroni’s correction, all parameters lost their significance.

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001, Bonferroni’s adjusted significance ^p < .05; ^^p < .01; ^^^p < .001.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author [IK]. The data are not publicly available due to them containing information that could compromise research participant consent.

No funding sources.