SOMATIC MORBIDITY AMONG BORDERLINE AND OTHER PERSONALITY DISORDERED YOUNG ADULTS - A REGISTER-BASED FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF FORMER ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIC INPATIENTS

Abstract

Personality disorders (PDs) are related to increased prevalence of somatic diseases. The objective of this follow-up study was to explore somatic morbidity in subjects with PD diagnosed by early adulthood. The initial study population consisted of 508 former adolescent psychiatric inpatients (n=508). Of them, 63 subjects (39 women, 24 men) had a diagnosis of PD, including borderline PD (BPD) (n=38) and other PD (OPD) (n=25). The K-SADS-PL was used to gather information during the adolescent psychiatric hospitalization. The information on in- and outpatient hospital treatments, until the end of 2016, was extracted from the National Care Register for Health Care. 96.8% of subjects with PDs had somatic morbidity during the follow-up period. In comparison of prevalence between BPD and OPD groups, significant differences were found in Infectious and parasitic diseases (BPD vs. OPD, 63.2% vs. 36.0%, p=0.043), Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (23.7% vs. 0%, p=0.009) and Diseases of the genitourinary system (60.5% vs. 12.0%, <0.001). Symptoms, signs and abnormal findings were more common among BPD than OPD group (89.5% vs. 68.0%, p=0.050). Abdominal pain diagnoses were common among women with PD, especially in those with BPD. Nearly one-fifth of subjects with PD had been diagnosed with acute appendicitis. The findings of this study suggest that subjects with PDs already have high somatic morbidity in young adulthood. This study emphasizes the importance of evaluating the physical health of subjects with PD.

Keywords

• adolescence
• borderline personality disorder
• personality disorder
• somatic diseases