Borderline personality symptomatology and compliance with general health care among internal medicine outpatients.

Objectives: The extant literature on borderline personality disorder (BPD) and compliance with mental health treatment contains conflicting findings. However, among those individuals with this type of personality dysfunction, reduced compliance with mental health treatment appears to be the predominant theme. To our knowledge, the relationship between BPD and compliance with general health care has not been studied. In addition, there is no prior study in this area examining a primary care population.

Methods: Using a cross-sectional survey methodology among a sample of internal medicine outpatients (N = 261), we assessed borderline personality symptoms with two self-report measures and general health care compliance or adherence with four self-report measures.

Results: With the exception of on-time arrival for doctor appointments, the remaining compliance variables demonstrated statistically significant relationships at the p < 0.01-0.001 levels, with borderline personality symptoms predicting reduced compliance (i.e., conscientiousness with medical treatment, regular dental check-ups, timely completion of laboratory work, following doctor's exercise and nutrition instructions, remembering to take medications, and Medical Outcomes Study General Adherence Score).

Conclusions: Compared with participants without borderline personality symptoms, those participants with such symptoms in this study evidenced lower general health care compliance.