Temperamental differences between bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: some implications for their diagnostic validity.

Background: The relationship between borderline personality disorder (BPD), bipolar disorder (BD), and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) requires further elucidation.

Methods: Seventy-four adult psychiatric in- and out-patients, each of them having received one of these diagnoses on clinical assessment, were interviewed and compared in terms of diagnostic overlap, age and sex distribution, comorbid substance, anxiety and eating disorders, and affective temperament.

Results: Diagnostic overlap within the three disorders was 54%.

Correlates of coping styles in psychotic illness -- An extension study.

Coping/recovery styles of integration and sealing over, reflecting the patient's dealing with his or her psychotic illness, influence the treatment adherence and, perhaps, the therapy outcome. Knowledge of these styles' potential clinical and personality correlates is so far limited. A semi-structured interview and self-rating questionnaires were used to assess 64 inpatients recovering from an acute episode of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder with regard to the prevailing coping/recovery style, depressive and negative syndromes, global functioning, locus of control and personality characteristics of novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence.

Evolution of neuroleptic-induced extrapyramidal syndromes under long-term neuroleptic treatment.

Background: The long-term evolution of neuroleptic-induced extrapyramidal syndromes (EPS) of Parkinsonism, akathisia and tardive dyskinesia (TD) is still a controversial issue worth exploring.

Method: A total of 200 inpatients on regular typical neuroleptics (NL) and/or clozapine were assessed in 1995 with regard to the prevalence of EPS. Altogether, 83 patients could be reassessed in 2003/04 (63 had died) using the same methods.

A comparative study on dual patients with affective disorder.

Background: The main purpose of the study was to investigate whether there are differences between dual patients with affective disorders regarding the different kinds of substances abused - a topic which has hardly been dealt with in the literature.

Methods: Clinical charts of 94 dual and 94 non-dual patients, matched for sex, age, and diagnosis, were scrutinized and the data of both groups compared with each other, with regard to the substance of abuse.

Results: A total of 17.