Self-harm behaviors in borderline personality: an analysis by gender.

A number of authors have examined gender differences in patients with borderline personality disorder. Current data suggest that for some clinical features, there appear to be genuine gender differences, whereas for other clinical features, there are not apparent differences. In this study, we examined by gender 22 self-harm behaviors in 61 internal medicine outpatients with borderline personality symptomatology. We found that only 2 self-harm behaviors were statistically significantly more common in one of the sexes--head-banging and losing a job on purpose, with both being more common in men. These findings appear to mirror the existing literature--i.e., that there may be some genuine gender differences with regard to specific self-harm behaviors, but the majority of self-harm behaviors overlap between the sexes.