Sleep patterns in borderline personality disorder.
Sleep patterns of borderline patients with and without a history of affective disorder were compared to each other and to normal reference data. The three groups could not be distinguished in terms of REM latency because a wide spread of values was seen within each group. Borderlines were different from normal controls in other aspects of sleep architecture; they had less total sleep, more stage 1 sleep, and less stage 4 sleep. If one assumes that REM latency is a biological marker for mood disorder, then our results do not support the hypothesis that borderline personality disorder is a variant of affective illness. However, other data suggest that REM latency should not be used to validate the presence of affective illness.
Benson
K L
KL
Department of Psychiatry, VA Medical Center, Palo Alto, CA 94304.
King
R
R
Gordon
D
D
Silva
J A
JA
Zarcone
V P
VP
D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time; D012894:Sleep Stages; D012895:Sleep, REM