Narcissistic personality disorder. A validity study and comparison to borderline personality disorder.

Seventeen former inpatients with NPD were retrospectively compared to 19 patients with schizophrenia, 26 with MAD and 33 patients with BPD in terms of longitudinal course and outcome, exploring the validity of the NPD diagnosis. Two illustrative cases were presented. Results suggest that NPD is a valid diagnostic entity, more distinct from schizophrenia than MAD. NPD probably differs from BPD in terms of equal sex distribution in NPD; poor social functioning, especially in the low level of satisfaction with heterosexual relationships in NPD at follow-up; more rehospitalization in NPD; probably poorer global functioning in NPD at admission; and probably poorer overall follow-up functioning in NPD.