Can autism be misdiagnosed as borderline personality disorder?

Recent findings indicate that PD may be a relatively common misdiagnosis in autistic adults before their autism is recognized (Kentrou et al., 2021). The current case concerns a young man who had been diagnosed with and treated for borderline PD for several years, before he was reassessed and diagnosed with autism.

How can you tell the difference between BPD and autism?

Those with autism may prefer to be alone or cannot read others’ emotions, while those with BPD are more likely to experience extreme emotions and impact their relationships because of it. Borderline personality disorder and autism have more similarities than you may believe, but their differences are also significant.

What are the 5 9 criteria for BPD?

Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (eg, intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days) Chronic feelings of emptiness.

What are the diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder?

The Criteria for a Diagnosis Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Identity disturbance with markedly or persistently unstable self-image or sense of self. Impulsive behavior in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating)

Are borderline and autism related?

There is a common understanding that ASD is a developmental neurological disorder, while BPD is more associated with adverse environmental factors, such as emotional deprivation, abuse and trauma in childhood (Dudas et al 2017). However, it is possible that some people may experience both conditions.

Is BPD a spectrum disorder?

It is now clear that DSM-IV-defined BPD is a heterogeneous construct that includes patients on the mood disorder spectrum and the impulsivity spectrum (Siever and Davis, 1991), in contrast to the original speculation that these patients might be near neighbors of patients with schizophrenia or other psychoses.

What does it mean to be borderline autistic?

This means that many children with combinations of developmental problems; autistic symptoms, hyperactivity/impulsivity, attention, language and behavioral problems, BIF – but not formal ID – do not receive appropriate support from habilitation or other specific societal support systems.

What is borderline autism in adults?

Adults with ASD might continue to struggle to manage their emotions. They may have sudden outbursts of anger or become withdrawn when overwhelmed. These emotional reactions, which are common in those with ASD, might be seen as neuroticism, borderline personality disorder, or another mental illness.

What is the criteria for a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder?

The Criteria for a Diagnosis. BPD is a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and emotion, as well as marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

What are the similarities between autism and borderline personality disorder?

Similarities between borderline personality disorder and autism The result of a study by Dudas, et al. (2017) when comparing the empathy between BPD and ASD found that empathy in both conditions were low. The symptomatology of BPD and autism spectrum disorder have been found to overlap with one another.

How is personality assessed in adults with autism spectrum disorder?

They assessed adults with ASD having no intellectual disability using the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV (SCID-II) screen[41] and the Swedish Universities Scales of Personality[42]. Avoidant and schizotypal personality traits were more common in patients with ASD compared to the control group (patients without ASD).

Is personality disorder a categorical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)?

Among studies exploring personality features in ASD, only a few assessed PD as a categorical diagnosis using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders (SCID-II)[35,36] or the International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE)[37] (see Table ​Table2).2).