Sex bias in the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Questioned the existence of sex bias in the clinical diagnosis of both borderline personality disorder (BPD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists (N?=?1,080) were asked in a mail survey to assess the applicability of a number of diagnoses to a case tailored to include equal numbers of criteria for both BPD and PTSD. Half of the Ss received a "male" case; the other half received an identical "female" case. Results from the final sample of 311 Ss revealed sex bias in diagnosis, particularly with respect to sex of client, sex of clinician, and profession of clinician. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)