Table 1.

Diagnostic criteria for 301.83 borderline personality disorder

A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships,  self-image and affects and marked impulsivity beginning by early  adulthood and present in a variety of contexts as indicated by five  (or more) of the following:

(1) Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment

(2) A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships  characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and  devaluation

(3) Identity disturbance markedly and persistently unstable self-image  or sense of self

(4) Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging  (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating)

(5) Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating  behavior

(6) Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g.,  intense episodic dysphoria irritability or anxiety usually lasting a few  hours and only rarely more than a few days)

(7) Chronic feelings of emptiness

(8) Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g.,  frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)

(9) Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative  symptoms

Table reprinted from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 2000. Reprinted with permission