Background: Emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD), formerly known as borderline personality disorder (BPD), is linked to heightened mortality rates, attributable to both comorbid medical conditions and the pervasive suicidal behavior inherent to the disorder. Patients with EUPD report more exposure to and used interpersonal violence. How self-reported Interpersonal problems are associated with interpersonal violence among patients with EUPD is not fully elucidated. In this study, we investigated the association between interpersonal problems and the cumulative lifetime burden of violence among suicidal women with EUPD.
Method: The study included 102 women with EUPD and at least two recent suicide attempts. We assessed accumulated lifetime violence load and interpersonal problems by using the Karolinska Interpersonal Violence Scale (KIVS) and the Inventory of Interpersonal problems (IIP) respectively.
Results: The mean T-scores for IIP subscales ranged between 56-63 and the KIVS total score between 0-19, with mean of 7.63. Cumulative lifetime burden of violence was significantly positively associated with Factor 1 (Spearman’s rho=0.26, p=0.0081), but not with Factor 2 (r=0.014, p=0.89). Further subscale analysis revealed that suicidal women with EUPD with a high burden of violence exhibited significantly greater interpersonal problems in the domains of Domineering/Controlling, Vindictive/Self-centered, and Cold/Distant, but not in the remaining five domains of interpersonal problems.
Conclusions: Only specific types of interpersonal problems seem to be associated with cumulative lifetime burden of violence among suicidal women with EUPD.