What does it matter if someone has only one symptom of Borderline Personality Disorder?

What is it about?

This paper reviews the implications of having one symptom of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). In particular, we investigate whether different symptoms, in isolation, are equally "clinically significant" as signals of impairment and dysfunction.

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Why is it important?

The existing system for diagnosing mental disorders in the U.S. (the DSM) is categorical, so that people either have a given disorder or do not have it. Each diagnosis is based on the presence or absence of a certain number of symptoms (with BPD, 5 are required). However, even having a minimal number of symptoms of a given disorder might still be clinically relevant, even if the diagnosis itself is not made. We show that having only one symptom of BPD is clinically relevant for a wide range of important outcomes. Moreover, we show that it matters to some degree which symptom is present.