The McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD) is a 10-question self-report screening tool used to identify individuals who may warrant further evaluation for borderline personality disorder (BPD). The questionnaire asks individuals about the presence of symptoms they experience that are characteristic of BPD. The assessment was released in 2003 after being developed by Mary Zanarini and her colleagues at the McLean Hospital. [1] [2] It has since been translated into several languages, including Arabic, [3] Finnish, [4] French, [5] Persian, [6] and Urdu. [7]
The MSI-BPD covers a broad spectrum of BPD characteristics, such as impulsivity, emotional instability, and difficulties with self-identity. Each question is answered with a "yes" or "no", indicating the presence or absence of a specific BPD symptom. A "yes" response to any item signifies the presence of that particular symptom. The total score, ranging from 0 to 10, is obtained by summing the values assigned to each answer (1 for yes, 0 for no). [1] [2]
Research suggests that the MSI-BPD demonstrates good accuracy in identifying potential BPD cases. Zanarini's initial validation study in 2003 found the instrument to be both sensitive (81%) and specific (85%) in correctly classifying individuals when using a cutoff score of 7. For those 25 years old or younger, the study reported a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 93%. This study also found that the MSI-BPD exhibits strong internal consistency. [1] [2] A later study by Chanen et al. in 2008 reported lower sensitivity (68%) and specificity (75%) for those 15 to 24 years old using the same cutoff score. [2] [8]
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive, long-term pattern of significant interpersonal relationship instability, a distorted sense of self, and intense emotional responses. People diagnosed with BPD frequently exhibit self-harming behaviours and engage in risky activities, primarily due to challenges regulating emotional states to a healthy, stable baseline. Symptoms such as dissociation, a pervasive sense of emptiness, and an acute fear of abandonment are prevalent among those affected.
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a diminished ability to empathize with other people's feelings. Narcissistic personality disorder is one of the sub-types of the broader category known as personality disorders. It is often comorbid with other mental disorders and associated with significant functional impairment and psychosocial disability.
Avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) or anxious personality disorder is a Cluster C personality disorder characterized by excessive social anxiety and inhibition, fear of intimacy, severe feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, and an overreliance on avoidance of feared stimuli as a maladaptive coping method. Those affected typically display a pattern of extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation and rejection, a belief that one is socially inept or personally unappealing to others, and avoidance of social interaction despite a strong desire for it. It appears to affect an approximately equal number of men and women.
A mood swing is an extreme or sudden change of mood. Such changes can play a positive or a disruptive part in promoting problem solving and in producing flexible forward planning. When mood swings are severe, they may be categorized as part of a mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, where erratic and disruptive mood swings are a defining feature.
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based psychotherapy that began with efforts to treat personality disorders and interpersonal conflicts. Evidence suggests that DBT can be useful in treating mood disorders and suicidal ideation as well as for changing behavioral patterns such as self-harm and substance use. DBT evolved into a process in which the therapist and client work with acceptance and change-oriented strategies and ultimately balance and synthesize them—comparable to the philosophical dialectical process of thesis and antithesis, followed by synthesis.
Psychological pain, mental pain, or emotional pain is an unpleasant feeling of a psychological, non-physical origin. A pioneer in the field of suicidology, Edwin S. Shneidman, described it as "how much you hurt as a human being. It is mental suffering; mental torment." There are numerous ways psychological pain is referred to, using a different word usually reflects an emphasis on a particular aspect of mind life. Technical terms include algopsychalia and psychalgia, but it may also be called mental pain, emotional pain, psychic pain, social pain, spiritual or soul pain, or suffering. While these clearly are not equivalent terms, one systematic comparison of theories and models of psychological pain, psychic pain, emotional pain, and suffering concluded that each describe the same profoundly unpleasant feeling. Psychological pain is widely believed to be an inescapable aspect of human existence.
Schizotypal personality disorder, also known as schizotypal disorder, is a cluster A personality disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) describes the disorder specifically as a personality disorder characterized by thought disorder, paranoia, a characteristic form of social anxiety, derealization, transient psychosis, and unconventional beliefs.
The Beck Depression Inventory, created by Aaron T. Beck, is a 21-question multiple-choice self-report inventory, one of the most widely used psychometric tests for measuring the severity of depression. Its development marked a shift among mental health professionals, who had until then, viewed depression from a psychodynamic perspective, instead of it being rooted in the patient's own thoughts.
Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) is an integrative form of psychotherapy, bringing together aspects of psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, systemic and ecological approaches. MBT was developed and manualised by Peter Fonagy and Anthony Bateman, designed for individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Some of these individuals suffer from disorganized attachment and failed to develop a robust mentalization capacity. Fonagy and Bateman define mentalization as the process by which we implicitly and explicitly interpret the actions of oneself and others as meaningful on the basis of intentional mental states. An alternative and simpler definition is "Seeing others from the inside and ourselves from the outside." The object of treatment is that patients with BPD increase their mentalization capacity, which should improve affect regulation, thereby reducing suicidality and self-harm, as well as strengthening interpersonal relationships.
Peter Fonagy, is a Hungarian-born British psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist. He studied clinical psychology at University College London. He is a Professor of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Developmental Science Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at University College London and a training and supervising analyst in the British Psycho-Analytical Society in child and adult analysis. His clinical interests center on issues of borderline psychopathology, violence, and early attachment relationships. He was Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre in London until September 2024. His work attempts to integrate empirical research with psychoanalytic theory. He has published over 500 papers, and 270 chapters and has authored 19 and edited 17 books.
Personality disorders (PD) are a class of mental health conditions characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by the culture. These patterns develop early, are inflexible, and are associated with significant distress or disability. The definitions vary by source and remain a matter of controversy. Official criteria for diagnosing personality disorders are listed in the sixth chapter of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
The mainstay of management of borderline personality disorder is various forms of psychotherapy with medications being found to be of little use.
The Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) is a widely used self-administered diagnostic tool designed to screen for and assess the severity of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Comprising seven items, the GAD-7 measures the frequency of anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks, with respondents rating each item on a scale from "not at all" to "nearly every day." Developed by Dr. Robert L. Spitzer and colleagues, the GAD-7 is commonly used in both clinical settings and research to identify GAD and to monitor treatment outcomes. It is valued for its simplicity, reliability, and validity in detecting anxiety symptoms in diverse populations.
The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) is a multiple-choice self-report inventory that is used as a screening and diagnostic tool for mental health disorders of depression, anxiety, alcohol, eating, and somatoform disorders. It is the self-report version of the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD), a diagnostic tool developed in the mid-1990s by Pfizer Inc. The length of the original assessment limited its feasibility; consequently, a shorter version, consisting of 11 multi-part questions - the Patient Health Questionnaire was developed and validated.
The Hypomania Checklist (HCL-32) is a questionnaire developed by Dr. Jules Angst to identify hypomanic features in patients with major depressive disorder in order to help recognize bipolar II disorder and other bipolar spectrum disorders when people seek help in primary care and other general medical settings. It asks about 32 behaviors and mental states that are either aspects of hypomania or features associated with mood disorders. It uses short phrases and simple language, making it easy to read. The University of Zurich holds the copyright, and the HCL-32 is available for use at no charge. More recent work has focused on validating translations and testing whether shorter versions still perform well enough to be helpful clinically. Recent meta-analyses find that it is one of the most accurate assessments available for detecting hypomania, doing better than other options at recognizing bipolar II disorder.
The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) is a self-report questionnaire designed to help detect bipolar disorder. It focuses on symptoms of hypomania and mania, which are the mood states that separate bipolar disorders from other types of depression and mood disorder. It has 5 main questions, and the first question has 13 parts, for a total of 17 questions. The MDQ was originally tested with adults, but it also has been studied in adolescents ages 11 years and above. It takes approximately 5–10 minutes to complete. In 2006, a parent-report version was created to allow for assessment of bipolar symptoms in children or adolescents from a caregiver perspective, with the research looking at youths as young as 5 years old. The MDQ has become one of the most widely studied and used questionnaires for bipolar disorder, and it has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive, long-term pattern of significant interpersonal relationship instability, a distorted sense of self, and intense emotional responses, which can be misdiagnosed. Misdiagnosis may involve erroneously assigning a BPD diagnosis to individuals not meeting the specific criteria or attributing an incorrect alternate diagnosis in cases where BPD is the accurate condition.
The Zanarini Rating Scale for Borderline Personality Disorder (ZAN-BPD) is a standardized, diagnostic rating scale designed to measure the severity and changes in the symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) over time. The assessment was developed by Mary Zanarini and her colleagues at McLean Hospital and released in 2003.
Mary C. Zanarini is an American psychologist and academic. She is a professor of psychology at the Department of Psychiatry of Harvard Medical School and the creator of the McLean Study of Adult Development (MSAD) at the McLean Hospital. Much of Zanarini's work has focused on borderline personality disorder (BPD).