A new study has shown that there is an overlap in the behaviour traits of people diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Autism Spectrum Conditions (or autism for short). This could mean many people may be receiving the wrong diagnosis and not getting the right support.
Dr Dudas had met patients with BPD who believed they were misdiagnosed, often claiming they were, in fact, bipolar. But in recent times he has increasingly met patients who believe themselves to have autism.
“I think in a number of cases, that is true. They may have been misdiagnosed”, he said.
One important conclusion of this work, Dudas believes, is that clinicians need to be made aware of this overlap to avoid further misdiagnosis. The overlap between autism and BPD is not only possible, but is more common than previously thought. Some people have both conditions.
“Patients have been saying this for a long time and it’s really important to do some more detailed studies to look into this.”
The overlap between autistic spectrum conditions and borderline personality disorder
Background
Both people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are significantly challenged in terms of understanding and responding to emotions and in interpersonal functioning.
Aims
To compare ASC, BPD, and comorbid patients in terms of autistic traits, empathy, and systemizing.
Methods
624 ASC, 23 BPD, and 16 comorbid (ASC+BPD) patients, and 2,081 neurotypical controls (NC) filled in the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and the Systemizing Quotient-Revised (SQ-R).
Results
On the AQ, the ASC group scored higher than the BPD group, who in turn scored higher than the comorbid group, who scored higher than controls. On the EQ, we found the comorbid and ASC groups scored lower than the BPD group, who were not different from controls. Finally, on the SQ-R, we found the ASC and BPD group both scored higher than controls.
Conclusions
Similar to ASC, BPD patients have elevated autistic traits and a strong drive to systemize, suggesting an overlap between BPD and ASC.
Dudas RB, Lovejoy C, Cassidy S, Allison C, Smith P, Baron-Cohen S (2017) The overlap between autistic spectrum conditions and borderline personality disorder. PLoS ONE 12(9): e0184447. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0184447
[PDV! Note: the authors approach their research with the presumption that BPD is a valid diagnosis and those that have been diagnosed as such within their study have not been misdiagnosed, and uses quantitative measurements of highly subjective qualities. However, even within their own framework their data demonstrates a high level of overlap between autism and traits attributed to BPD.]
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