Morbidity risk for mood disorders in the families of borderline patients.

We analyzed the familial morbidity risk for mood disorders (MR) and the presence of a family history of alcoholism in a group of 58 patients with DSM-III borderline personality disorder (PD). The MR in the families of borderline subjects was not significantly different from that found in a control group of affective patients with other cluster II PD, or without PD. The MR in the families of borderline subjects who had never developed an affective episode was not significantly different from that found in the families of borderline PD with a history of mood disorders. Borderline subjects with mood disorders had higher rates of alcoholism in their families, mainly among parents. Our results support the hypothesis that borderline PD, even in absence of the codiagnosis of a mood disorder in the subject, may be a predictor of higher familial liability to mood disorders, although it may be more informative for the familial clustering of specific subgroups than for mood disorders as a whole.