title: The clinical trajectory of patients with borderline personality disorder.
abstract: The epidemiological data on the diagnostic course of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) is limited. We used a nationwide register to investigate the diagnostic stability and changes over time.
  
  
  
  The Danish nationwide registers were used to follow all patients with a diagnosis of BPD and investigate their first-ever psychiatric diagnosis and their latest diagnosis in the time period of 1995-2012. From this, we found the diagnostic stability and described the diagnostic changes.
  
  
  
  A total of 10 786 patients diagnosed with BPD were identified. The prospective diagnostic stabilities were 37% for females and 25% for males, and retrospective stabilities were 20% for females and 22% for males. More than 60% of patients received other diagnoses than BPD as their first-ever diagnosis. Stress-related (17%) and depressive disorders (14%) were most frequent as first-ever diagnosis. The latest diagnosis remained BPD in nearly half of females and one third of males, followed by schizophrenia, notably for those with longer follow-up and males.
  
  
  
  This study gives a detailed display of complicated clinical trajectories. The low diagnostic stabilities demonstrate a heterogenous patient group diagnosed with many other psychiatric diagnoses over time. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Department of Organic Psychiatric Disorders and Emergency Ward, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jesper Nørgaard
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Kjaer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Biskin
authors.affiliation: Department of Organic Psychiatric Disorders and Emergency Ward, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vestergaard
authors.affiliation: Department of Organic Psychiatric Disorders and Emergency Ward, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lea Nørgreen
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Gustafsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Organic Psychiatric Disorders and Emergency Ward, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Povl
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Munk-Jørgensen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012042:Registries; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Borderline personality disorder; Schizophrenia; clinical trajectory; diagnostic stability; epidemiology