A comparative analysis of the MMPI-2 personality profiles between patients with Borderline Personality and prisoners with Antisocial Personality Disorder

Aim. Aggressive behaviours are often present in borderline personality disorder (BPD) and they can be considered as a prodromal sign of the disorder, representing a relevant clinical element overlapped with antisocial personality disorder (APD). Despite the differences between the two clinical pictures, this overlapping could bias or even prevent the use of assessment tools, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2). Some authors suggested that this tool should be used with caution when assessing patients with BPD and differentiating them from those with APD. The present study investigated the MMPI-2 personality profiles of a group of patients with BPD and aggressive behaviours and a group of prisoners with APD, with the aim to better understand which scales can be overlapped and which ones can differentiate between the two clinical pictures. Methods. 91 subjects participated, including 30 patients with a BPD diagnosis and 61 prisoners with APD. Two independent assessors administered the SCID-I and the SCID-II. Results. Results showed the elevations on the Pd, Pa, Pt and Sc clinical scales for both the groups and the elevation on the D clinical scale, which resulted significant only among patients with BPD. In addition, content scales seemed to suggest a higher presence of social, family and work problems among the patients with BPD. Conclusions. The present study highlights that the personality profile assessed by the MMPI-2 could be to a great extent similar between patients with BPD and prisoners with APD. The D clinical scale, which assesses depressive symptomatology, alongside content scales correlated with functioning problems, seem to be the only ones able to differentiate between the two clinical pictures, suggesting that greater problems can be observed in the functioning and mood areas among patients with BPD as compared with prisoners with APD.