Detecting individuals with borderline personality disorder in the community: an ascertainment strategy and comparison with a hospital sample.

Most empirical research on borderline personality disorder (BPD) draws its participant pool from clinical samples. Individuals with BPD recruited from clinical settings, however, may represent a unique subset of those with the illness. The present study sought to determine (a) whether individuals with diagnosable BPD could be readily ascertained from the community and (b) how such individuals would compare to those drawn from a clinical setting on various dimensions. We found that the clinical sample showed a somewhat more severe expression of illness, a different pattern of BPD symptoms, somewhat greater Axis I comorbidity, and more medication and prior hospitalization than the community sample. On other clinical dimensions (e.g., depression, anxiety, dissociation, positive and negative affect) however, the two groups were quite similar. Results suggest that some research questions might be addressed better with participants from community samples, while others might be better suited to clinical samples.

Menstruation across time: menarche, menstrual attitudes, experiences, and behaviors.

This study explored the relationship between early and current menstrual experiences. The primary hypothesis was that women who reported positive menarcheal experiences (including menstrual education and menarche) would tend to report positive current menstrual attitudes, experiences, and/or behaviors, and vice versa for women who reported negative menarcheal experiences. In this survey-based study, college-aged women (n = 327) were screened by completing a questionnaire concerning their menarcheal experiences. Women who had extremely negative ("negative group," n = 46) or extremely positive ("positive group," n = 38) early menstrual experiences returned to complete questionnaires concerning current menstrual attitudes, experiences, and behaviors. Early and current menstrual experiences were most strongly associated in the domain of menstrual attitudes. Women in the negative group reported more negative menstrual attitudes than did women in the positive group. There were additional associations between early menstrual experiences and measures of body image and health behaviors. Positive group participants reported more positive body image and better general health behaviors. Results suggest that early menstrual experiences may be related to menstrual experiences later in life. This study invites further investigation of the psychology of menstruation and suggests connecting menstruation with other women's health issues.