Is bulimia associated with borderline personality disorder? A controlled study.

To test the hypothesis that bulimia may be associated with borderline personality traits or frank borderline personality disorder, the authors administered the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB) under blind conditions to 52 bulimic subjects, 22 outpatient controls with a history of major depression but no history of an eating disorder, and 13 nonpsychiatric controls. Only 1.9% of bulimic subjects met revised DIB criteria for borderline personality disorder, and mean DIB scores were almost identical in bulimic subjects and controls with major depression. These results argue against a relationship between bulimia per se and borderline personality disorder or traits.