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Obesity and borderline personality symptomatology: comparison of a psychiatric versus primary care sample

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between obesity and borderline personality symptomatology in two clinical settings: a psychiatric vs primary care setting. The body mass indices (BMI) of 48 women from a psychiatric outpatient setting and 83 women from a primary care setting were calculated. Each participant completed the borderline personality scale of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-Revised (PDQ-R). While BMI and PDQ-R were moderately related in the psychiatric sample (r=0.43, P<0.01), there was a lack of association between these variables in the primary care sample (r=0.04, P>0.05). In conclusion, women's increasing body weight appears to have some degree of correlation to borderline personality symptomatology among psychiatric patients, whereas it apparently does not among primary care patients.

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Sansone, R., Wiederman, M., Sansone, L. et al. Obesity and borderline personality symptomatology: comparison of a psychiatric versus primary care sample. Int J Obes 25, 299–300 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0801514

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