Abstract

ABSTRACT: We examined health care utilization by subjects with symptoms of borderline personality disorder. The study included 194 female subjects between the ages of 17 and 52 who were consecutively seen for nonemergency medical care in a health maintenance organization. Each subject completed the borderline personality scale of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-Revised (PDQ-R), as well as the Self-Harm Inventory, which correlates with the diagnosis of borderline personality. For each instrument, subjects with scores suggestive of borderline personality were compared with subjects without this disorder in regard to their utilization of health care resources (eg, number of combined telephone contacts and physician visits, number of physicians seen, number of prescriptions obtained) during the preceding 12 months. Subjects with more severe borderline personality disorder (according to the PDQ-R) made significantly more contacts with the health care facility (ie, telephone calls and physician visits) and received more prescriptions.