“Relationship Quality and Stability in Couples When One Partner Suffers From Borderline Personality Disorder”, 2009-09-25 ():
The main goal of the present study was to examine and compare the psychosocial functioning of 35 couples including a woman diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) to that of a nonclinical control sample of 35 couples.
The BPD status of women from the clinical group and the prevalence of personality disorder in their partner were ascertained through the SCID-II. Participants completed self-report measures of couple functioning.
A majority of couples in which the woman suffered from BPD (68.7%) evidenced frequent episodes of breakups and reconciliations and, over an 18-month period, nearly 30% of these couples dissolved their relationship. Nearly half of the men involved in a romantic relationship with a woman suffering from BPD met criteria for one personality disorder or more.
As compared with nonclinical couples, clinical couples showed lower marital satisfaction, higher attachment insecurity, more demand/withdraw communication problems, and higher levels of violence.