Diagnosis and clinical features of borderline personality disorder in the east and west: a preliminary report.

In the first clinical study of the borderline personality disorder (BPD) in Asia, the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB) was performed on 85 female outpatients aged 18 to 30 years in Japan. BPD was diagnosed in 32 (38%) of these patients. The International Classification of Diseases-9 (ICD-9) diagnoses made at the initial examination of the DIB-identified BPD patients were, in order of frequency, neurotic disorders, anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders, and manic-depressive psychoses. The DSM-III axis I diagnoses of the DIB-identified BPD patients were affective disorders in 63%, eating disorders in 34%, and substance use disorders in 22%. This study suggests that there are indeed BPD patients in Japan. An exception is made of the low incidence of substance use disorders, and of the fact that most Japanese patients continue to maintain stormy one-to-one or masochistic relationships with their parents because they live at home--their clinical picture is not different from that of American patients.