Diagnostic accuracy of DSM-5 borderline personality disorder criteria: Toward an optimized criteria set.

OBJECTIVE: The polythetic system used by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5) for diagnosing borderline personality disorders (BPD) is far from optimal; however, accumulated research and clinical data are strong enough to warrant ongoing utilization. This study examined diagnostic efficiency of the nine DSM-IV BPD criteria, then explored the feasibility of an optimized criteria set in classifying BPD. METHODS: Adults (N=1,623) completed the Structured Clinical Interviews for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders resulting in a BPD group (n=352) and an inpatient psychiatric control group (PC) with no personality disorders (n=1,271). Receiver operator characteristics and diagnostic efficiency statistics were calculated to ascertain the relative diagnostic efficiency of each DSM-5 BPD criterion in classifying BPD cases. RESULTS: Affective instability (Criterion 6) evidenced the strongest capacity to differentiate the groups (AUC = .84, SE = .01, p < .0001). Abandonment fears (Criterion 1), unstable relationships (Criterion 2), identity disturbance (Criterion 3), impulsivity (Criterion 4), and chronic emptiness (Criterion 7) yielded good-to-moderate discrimination (AUC range = .75-.79). A composite index of these six criteria yielded excellent accuracy (AUC = .98, SE = .002, p < .0001), sensitivity (SN=.99), and specificity (SP=.90). CONCLUSIONS: The current findings add to evidence that affective instability is a useful gate criterion for screening, and the optimized criteria set evidences equivalent accuracy to the original 9 criteria, with a substantial reduction in estimated heterogeneity (from 256 combinations with the original set to 42 combinations with the optimized set).

Reducing Adverse Polypharmacy in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder: An Empirical Case Study.

OBJECTIVE: Polypharmacy is common and especially challenging in the context of borderline personality disorder in light of impulsivity and self-harm associated with the disorder, risk of adverse drug-drug interactions, and financial burden. Reduction in polypharmacy could be conceptualized as a high priority in the treatment of borderline personality disorder. This case aims to demonstrate that potential. METHOD: This case report presents outcomes data for an individual with borderline personality disorder during the course of an extended psychiatric hospitalization. Symptomatic change is based on the Patient Health Questionnaire Somatic, Anxiety, and Depression Symptoms scales and World Health Organization 5-Item Well-Being Index. Change in polypharmacy is presented both in terms of absolute number and complexity of the medication regimen. Clinical outcomes data are provided at 2, 12, and 24 weeks postdischarge. RESULTS: During a 56-day hospitalization, the patient demonstrated clinical improvement across clinical domains-all occurred within the context of reduced number (43%) and complexity (40%) of her medication regimen. Symptomatic improvement was sustained up to 6 months postdischarge. CONCLUSIONS: Despite good intentions, polypharmacy can be associated with iatrogenic harm and contribute to functional impairment, especially in the context of borderline personality disorder, in which symptomatic fluctuations are part of the illness itself. A reduction in the patient's high-risk polypharmacy during treatment represents a noteworthy treatment outcome in and of itself. Additional measures of medication risk and liability have the potential to become markers of clinical effectiveness.

Interhemispheric insular and inferior frontal connectivity are associated with substance abuse in a psychiatric population.

Substance abuse is highly comorbid with major psychiatric disorders. While the neural underpinnings of drug abuse have been studied extensively, most existing studies compare drug users without comorbidities and healthy, non-user controls. Such studies do not generalize well to typical patients with substance abuse disorders. Therefore, we studied a population of psychiatric inpatients (n = 151) with a range of mental illnesses. Psychiatric disorders were diagnosed via structured interviews. Sixty-five percent of patients met criteria for at least one substance use disorder. Patients were recruited for resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) experiments to examine the interhemispheric connectivity between brain regions hypothesized to be involved in drug addiction, namely: the inferior, medial, and superior frontal gyri; insula; striatum; and anterior cingulate cortex. The World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHOA) questionnaire was used to further assess drug use. An association between use of tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, sedatives, and hallucinogens with increased insular interhemispheric connectivity was observed. In addition, increased inferior frontal gyrus interhemispheric connectivity was associated with amphetamine and inhalant use. Our results suggest that increased inter-hemispheric insula connectivity is associated with the use of several drugs of abuse. Importantly, psychiatric inpatients without a history of drug dependence were used as an ecologically valid control group rather than the more typical comparison between "mentally ill vs. healthy control" populations. We suggest that dysfunction of interhemispheric connectivity of the insula and to a lesser extent of the inferior frontal gyrus, are related to drug abuse in psychiatric populations.

Perceptions about e-cigarette safety may lead to e-smoking during pregnancy.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are nicotine-delivery devices that are increasingly used, especially by young people. Because e-cigarettes lack many of the substances found in regular tobacco, they are often perceived as a safer smoking alternative, especially in high-risk situations such as pregnancy. However, studies suggest that it is exposure to nicotine that is most detrimental to prenatal development. The authors studied perceptions of tobacco and e-cigarette health risks using a multiple-choice survey. To study the perceived safety of e-cigarettes versus tobacco cigarettes, 184 modified Global Health Youth Surveys (WHO, http://www.who.int/tobacco/surveillance/gyts/en/ ) were completed electronically or on paper. Age range, smoking status, and perceptions about tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes were studied. The results verified that younger people use e-cigarettes more than older people. Tobacco cigarettes were perceived as more harmful than e-cigarettes to health in general, including lung cancer and pregnancy. Although more research is necessary, the authors postulate that the perception that e-cigarettes are safer during pregnancy may induce pregnant women to use these devices more freely. Given that nicotine is known to cause fetal harm, pregnant mothers who smoke e-cigarettes could cause even greater harm to the fetus because e-cigarettes are perceived as being safer than tobacco cigarettes. Until more data about the effects of nicotine during pregnancy are available, the authors advocate for labeling of e-cigarettes as potentially harmful, at least during pregnancy.