Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Home
  • Home
Article
  • Cited by 4

  • Access
  • Open access

The association between borderline personality disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome: systematic review

  • Sarah Penfold (a1), Emily St. Denis (a1) and Mir Nadeem Mazhar (a1)

Abstract

Background

Overlap of aetiological factors and demographic characteristics with clinical observations of comorbidity has been documented in fibromyalgia syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Aims

The purpose of this study was to assess the association of BPD with fibromyalgia syndrome and CFS. The authors reviewed literature on the prevalence of BPD in patients with fibromyalgia or CFS and vice versa.

Methods

A search of five databases yielded six eligible studies. A hand search and contact with experts yielded two additional studies. We extracted information pertaining to study setting and design, demographic information, diagnostic criteria and prevalence.

Results

We did not identify any studies that specifically assessed the prevalence of fibromyalgia or CFS in patients with BPD. Three studies assessed the prevalence of BPD in fibromyalgia patients and reported prevalence of 1.0, 5.25 and 16.7%. Five studies assessed BPD in CFS patients and reported prevalence of 3.03, 1.8, 2.0, 6.5 and 17%.

Conclusions

More research is required to clarify possible associations between BPD, fibromyalgia and CFS.

  • View HTML

      • Send article to Kindle

      To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about sending to your Kindle.

      Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

      Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

      The association between borderline personality disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome: systematic review
      Available formats
      ×

      Send article to Dropbox

      To send this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Dropbox.

      The association between borderline personality disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome: systematic review
      Available formats
      ×

      Send article to Google Drive

      To send this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Google Drive.

      The association between borderline personality disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome: systematic review
      Available formats
      ×

Copyright

COPYRIGHT: © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Corresponding author

Mir Nadeem Mazhar, Department of Psychiatry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Email: mazharm@kgh.kari.net

Footnotes

Hide All

Declaration of interest

None.

Footnotes

References

Hide All
1 Lieb, K, Zanarini, MC, Schmahl, C, Linehan, M, Bohus, M. Borderline personality disorder. Lancet 2004; 364: 453–6.
2 American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edn. APA, 2013.
3 Swartz, MS, Blazer, D, George, L, Winfield, I. Estimating the prevalence of borderline personality disorder in the community. J Personal Disord 1990; 4: 257–72.
4 Widiger, TA, Weissman, MM. Epidemiology of borderline personality disorder. Hosp Comm Psychiatry 1991; 42: 1015–1021.
5 Bender, DS, Dolan, RT, Skodol, AE, Sanislow, CA, Dyck, IR, McGlashan, TH, et al. Treatment utilization by patients with personality disorders. Am J Psychiatry 2001; 158: 295–302.
6 Clauw, DJ. Fibromyalgia: an overview. Am J Med 2009; 122: S3–S13.
7 Mease, JP. Fibromyalgia syndrome: review of clinical presentation, pathogenesis, outcome measures, and treatment. J Rheumatol 2005; 75: 21.
8 Jahan, F, Nanji, K, Qidwai, W, Qasim, R. Fibromyalgia syndrome: an overview of pathophysiology, diagnosis and management. Oman Med J 2012; 27: 192–5.
9 Fleming, KC, Volcheck, MM. Central sensitization syndrome and the initial evaluation of a patient with fibromyalgia: a review. Rambam Maimonides Med J 2015; 6: e0020.
10 Frankenburg, FR, Zanarini, MC. The association between borderline personality disorder and chronic medical illnesses, poor health-related lifestyle choices, and costly forms of health care utilization. J Clin Psychiatry 2004; 65: 1660–5.
11 Malin, K, Littlejohn, GO. Personality and fibromyalgia syndrome. Open Rheumatol J 2012; 6: 273–85.
12 Macfarlane, GJ, Thomas, E, Papageorgiou, AC, Schollum, J, Croft, PR, Silman, AJ. The natural history of chronic pain in the community: a better prognosis than in the clinic? J Rheumatol 1996; 23: 1617–20.
13 Fukuda, K, Straus, SE, Hickie, I. The chronic fatigue syndrome: a comprehensive approach to its definition and study. Ann Intern Med 1994; 121: 953–9.
14 Cho, HJ, Skowera, A, Cleare, A, Wessely, S. Chronic fatigue syndrome: an update focusing on phenomenology and pathophysiology. Curr Opin Psychiatry 2006; 19: 67–73.
15 Afari, N, Buchwald, D. Chronic fatigue syndrome: a review. Am J Psychiatry 2003; 160: 221–36.
16 Saez-Francas, N, Calvo, N, Alegre, J, Castro-Merrero, J, Ramirez, N, Hernadez-Vara, J, et al. Childhood trauma in chronic fatigue syndrome: focus on personality disorders and psychopathology. Compr Psychiatry 2015; 62: 13–9.
17 Heim, C, Wagner, D, Maloney, E, Papanicolaou, D, Solomon, L, Jones, J, et al. Early adverse experience and risk of chronic fatigue syndrome: results from a population-based study. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2006; 63: 1258–66.
18 Lee, S, Yu, H, Wing, Y, Chan, C, Lee, AM, Lee, DTS, et al. Psychiatric morbidity and illness experience of primary care patients with chronic fatigue in Hong Kong. Am J Psychiatry 2000; 157: 380–4.
19 Davis, MP, Khoshknabi, D, Yue, GH. Management of fatigue in cancer patients. Curr Pain Headache Rep 2006; 10: 260–9.
20 Sansone, RA, Sansone, LA. Fibromyalgia and borderline personality: theoretical perspectives. In Focus on Fibromyalgia Research (ed Rockne, AP): 127–41. Nova Science, 2007.
21 Thieme, K, Turk, DC, Flor, H. Comorbid depression and anxiety in fibromyalgia syndrome: relationship to somatic and psychosocial variables. Psychosom Med 2004; 66: 837–844.
22 Rose, S, Cottencin, O, Chouraki, V, Wattier, JM, Houvenagel, E, Vallet, B. Study on personality and psychiatric disorder in fibromyalgia. Presse Med 2009; 38: 695–700.
23 Uguz, F, Cicek, E, Salli, A, Karahan, AY, Albayrak, I, Kaya, N, et al. Axis I and axis II psychiatric disorders in patients with fibromyalgia. Gen Hosp Psychiatry 2010; 32: 105–7.
24 Johnson, SK, DeLuca, J, Natelson, BH. Personality dimensions in the chronic fatigue syndrome: a comparison with multiple sclerosis and depression. J Psychiatr Res 1996; 30: 9–20.
25 Courjaret, J, Schotte, CK, Wijnants, H, Moorkens, G, Cosyns, P. Chronic fatigue syndrome and DSM-IV personality disorders. J Psychosom Res 2009; 66: 13–20.
26 Nater, UM, Jones, JF, Lin, J-MS, Maloney, E, Reeves, WC, Heim, C. Personality features and personality disorders in chronic fatigue syndrome: a population-based study. Psychother Psychosom 2010; 79: 312–318.
27 Kempke, S, Van Den Eede, F, Schotte, C, Claes, S, Van Wambeke, P, Van Houdenhove, B, et al. Prevalence of DSM-IV personality disorders in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: a controlled study. Int J Behav Med 2013; 20: 219–28.
28 Calvo, N, Saez-Francas, N, Valero, S, Alegre, J, Casas, M. Comorbid personality disorders in chronic fatigue syndrome patients: a marker of psychopathological severity. Actas Espanolas de Psiquiatria 2015; 43: 58–65.
29 Scott, K, Von Korff, M, Angermeyer, MC, Beniet, C, Bruffaerts, R. Association of childhood adversities and early-onset mental disorders with adult-onset chronic physical conditions. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2011; 68: 838–44.
  • Cited by 4

  • Access
  • Open access

The association between borderline personality disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome: systematic review

  • Sarah Penfold (a1), Emily St. Denis (a1) and Mir Nadeem Mazhar (a1)

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between <date>. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed

  • Cited by 4

  • Access
  • Open access

The association between borderline personality disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome: systematic review

  • Sarah Penfold (a1), Emily St. Denis (a1) and Mir Nadeem Mazhar (a1)
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.

×

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

Conflicting interests

Do you have any conflicting interests? *