Table 1.

Demographic, clinical and psychosocial characteristics of 5 adolescents with life-threatening treatment refusal and borderline personality disorder

	Case 1	Case 2	Case 3	Case 4	Case 5
Age	17	13	17	16	17
Gender	Female	Female	Female	Female	Female
Physical illness
Name	Diabetes Mellitus	Bird Fancier’s lung	Maple Syrup Disease	Diabetes Mellitus	AIDS
Duration	3 years	3 years	17 years	4 years	17 years
Current Treatment	Insulin, diet	Oxygen	Severe diet	Insulin, diet	Oral drugs
Hospitalizations (N)	6	3 (last for 15 months)	>15 (total=3.5 years)	12	7
Psychosocial background
Family history	Alcoholism	Fruit of rape	Alcoholism	???	HIV, addiction
Rupture in childhood	Parental divorce	Mother rejection	Provisional family	Provisional family	Mother death
Maltreatment	Sexual abuse	Violence	No	No	Neglect
DSM-IV BPD signs
Unstable relationships	Severe	Moderate	Severe	Severe	Moderate
Impulsiveness	Severe	Severe	Severe	Severe	Severe
Affective instability	Severe	Moderate	Severe	Severe	Moderate
Inappropriate anger	Moderate	Severe	Severe	Severe	Severe
Suicidal threats	Severe	Moderate	Severe	Severe	Moderate
Identity disturbance	Severe	Severe	Moderate	Severe	Severe
Emptiness	No	Moderate	No	Severe	Moderate
Transient psychosis	Moderate	Severe	No	Severe	Severe
Abandonment	Severe	Severe	Severe	Severe	Moderate
Psychiatric variables
GAF score at entry	15	20	10	7	10
GAF score at discharge	55	70	75	45	68
Child DIB-R score*	7	8	8	8	7

AIDS: Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome; GAF: Global Assessment Functioning; BPD: Borderline Personality Disorder; DIB-R: Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines - Revised;

^*a score > 6 supports the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder.