Borderline personality-disordered alcoholics in Iceland: Descriptions on demographic, clinical, and MMPI variables.

A particular Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) high-point configuration was found to describe borderline personality disorder within a general alcoholic inpatient population. We also partially replicated, in an Icelandic sample of alcoholics, the findings of Nace, Saxon, and Shore (1983) on the clinical and demographic characteristics of borderline patients. Subjects were 51 male and female inpatient alcoholics consecutively admitted to an Icelandic psychiatric hospital. Gunderson's Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines and the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test were used to diagnose borderline personality disorder and alcoholism, respectively. As predicted, a particular MMPI high-point configuration characterized alcoholics with borderline personality disorder but did not characterize nonborderline patients. Borderline patients were also more likely to be younger, to abuse other psychotropic drugs besides alcohol, and to have a family history of mental illness. The finding of a borderline personality-disordered subgroup among alcoholics contests the view of alcoholism as a unitary disease and has implications for treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)