[Borderline syndrome and eating disorders. Review of the literature and interview study of 172 consecutive patients of the Freiburg Eating Disorders Outpatient Clinic].

The comorbidity of personality discorders and eating discorders is an important topic of theoretical and empirical investigation in the field of eating disorders. There is disagreement both concerning the extent of such comorbidity and it's clinical implications for the development and conduct of treatments. After a critical review of the literature up to 12/1994, we report on the results of a standard screening for borderline personality disorder (BPD) with the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines--Revised (DIB-R) administered by trained and reliable raters in a consecutive sample of 172 first attenders of a regional eating disorders clinic (anorexia, restrictive type [DSM-IV 307.1]: n = 31, anorexia, binge eating/purging type [DSM-IV 307.1]: n = 29, bulimia nervosa [DSM-IV 307.51]: n = 80, eating disorder NOS [DSM-IV 307.50]: n = 32). 8.8% of all eating disordered patients (n = 172) and 10.0% of patients fulfilling the criteria for either anorexia or bulimia (n = 140) met the criteria of a BPD (DIB-R score > or = 8). There were no significant differences between the anorectic and bulimic subgroups. BPD-patients did not differ from the non-BPD patients in the extent or type of their eating disorder. These results differ substantially from those reported in (mostly) smaller and more selected samples. Their nosological and clinical implications are discussed.