Screening for borderline personality disorders with the MMPI-168

• Published in: Journal of clinical psychology 1983-09, Vol.39 (5), p.722-726
• Main Authors: Lloyd, Camille, Overall, John E., Click JR, Maurice
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Borderline Personality Disorder - diagnosis; Borderline Personality Disorder - psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; MMPI; Personality disorders; Personality Disorders - diagnosis; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychopathology. Psychiatry
• ISSN: 0021-9762; 1097-4679
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-4679(198309)39:5<722::AID-JCLP2270390513>3.0.CO;2-X

Investigated the possible use of the MMPI‐168 as a screening instrument for identifying individuals (N = 27) with DSM III diagnosed borderline personality disorder. Using previously reported percentile norms for bright young college graduates as a reference, borderline patients as a group fell above the 98th percentile on the F, Hypochondriasis, Depression, Hysteria, Psychopathic Deviate, Psychasthenia and Schizophrenia scales, as well as the general psychopathology scale (PSY). Additionally, the borderline sample's mean score on the Paranoia scale was above the 95th percentile, and the mean Social Introversion scale was above the 90th percentile, Almost equally distinguishing was the finding that the mean K scale score for the borderline sample fell as low as the 8th percentile for the normative college sample. These results demonstrate that the MMPI‐168 response pattern of borderline patients was clearly distinguishable from the great majority of college graduates.