Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a serious mental disorder marked by a pattern of ongoing instability in moods, behavior, self-image, and functioning. These experiences often result in impulsive actions and unstable interpersonal relationships. A person with BPD may experience intense episodes of anger, depression, and anxiety that may last from only a few hours to days.

Association of BPD and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Penfold (2016) stated:

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BPD in patients with CFS: "There does not appear to be firm and consistent evidence to support the hypothesis that the prevalence of BPD is higher in individuals with CFS than in the general population."

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Courjatet (2009) and Kempke (2013) also found personality disorders were no more common in ME/CFS patients than in the general population.

Notable studies

• 2009, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and DSM-IV Personality Disorders (Abstract)
• 2013, Prevalence of DSM-IV Personality Disorders in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Controlled Study (Abstract)

• 2016, The association between borderline personality disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome: systematic review (Abstract)

See also

• Biopsychosocial model
• Ethical issues
• Personality traits and patient attitudes in ME/CFS
• The association between borderline personality disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome: systematic review
• Trauma

Learn more

• Borderline personality disorder - NIMH

See chronic fatigue syndrome.

See myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) - A psychiatric reference book published by the American Psychiatric Association, often referred to as "the psychiatrist's Bible". Although the most recent version (DSM-5) purports to be the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders, the editors of both previous versions of the manual have heavily criticized the current version due to the climate of secrecy that shrouded the development of the latest version. 69% of the people who worked on DSM-5 reported having ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Allen Frances, who headed the development of the previous version, warned of dangerous unintended consequences such as new false 'epidemics'. The British Psychological Society criticized DSM-5 diagnoses as "clearly based largely on social norms, with 'symptoms' that all rely on subjective judgements" and expressed a major concern that "clients and the general public are negatively affected by the continued and continuous medicalisation of their natural and normal responses to their experiences". A petition signed by over 13,000 mental health professionals stated that the lowered diagnostic thresholds in DSM-5, combined with entirely subjective criteria based on western social norms, would "lead to inappropriate medical treatment of vulnerable populations". The director of the US National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Thomas R. Insel, pointed out that the diagnoses in DSM-5 had no scientific validity whatsoever. (Learn more: www.scientificamerican.com)

somatic symptom disorder A psychiatric term to describe an alleged condition whereby a person's thoughts somehow cause physical symptoms. The actual existence of such a condition is highly controversial, due to a lack of scientific evidence. It is related to other psychiatric terms, such as "psychosomatic", "neurasthenia", and "hysteria". Older terms include "somatization", "somatoform disorder", and "conversion disorder". Such terms refer to a scientifically-unsupported theory that claims that a wide range of physical symptoms can be created by the human mind, a theory which has been criticized as "mind over matter" parapsychology, a pseudoscience.