"A comparison of borderline and schizophrenic patients for childhood life events and parent-child relationships"
Borderlines had more childhood sexual and physical abuse, more early separation from their mothers, more paternal criminality, less maternal care, and were more overprotected.

Am J Psychiatry 1990 Aug;147(8):1014-7
"Altered platelet alpha 2-adrenergic receptor binding sites in BPD"
Fewer alpha 2-adrenergic receptor binding sites compared with borderlines on low doses of benzodiazepines. Non medicated BPD's were more anxious than medicated patients, raising the possibility that lower alpha 2-adrenergic receptor binding in BPD is related to anxiety.

Am J Psychiatry 1991 Jan;148(1):106-11 (from NIMH)
"Neuropsychological testing of patients with BPD"
"...significantly impaired with that of the normal group on memory tests requiring uncued recall of complex, recently learned material. Cues given on an auditory memory task partially corrected that deficit." "...Also significantly impaired on several visual perceptual tests." These abnormal findings did not appear to be due to attention problems, depression, alcohol use or "psychomotor impairment."

J Nerv Ment Dis 1991 Mar;179(3):157-61 (from NIMH)
"Self-ratings of anger and hostility in BPD"
Patients with BPD had significantly higher anger and hostility scores than volunteers, not related to gender, treatment or research setting, the degree of acute distress, or the presence of major depression. "...Anger and depression may represent independent clinical conditions with independent biological mechanisms regulating these two affective states."

Am J Psychiatry 1991 May;148(5):648-51
"Parents' emotional neglect and overprotection according to the recollections of patients with BPD"
"...patients with BPD remembered both their fathers and their mothers as having been significantly less caring and more controlling than did the nonborderline patients." (How much of it is a true phenomenon and how much was splitting is unclear and was not addressed in this study - L. Heller, M.D.)

J Nerv Ment Dis 1991 Jun;179(6):329-37
"A comparison of four measures to diagnose DSM-III-R BPD in outpatients"
Four tests were evaluated to determine how accurate they were at predicting the actual criteria. The DIB (diagnostic interview schedule for borderlines) was the best, and others better than chance levels. (Previous studies showed 70% accuracy for the best test, the DIB - L. Heller, M.D.)

J Clin Psychopharmacol 1991 Apr;11(2):116-20
"A preliminary trial of fluoxetine in refractory borderline patients"
5 BPD patients with severe symptoms resistant to phenelzine and neuroleptics were treated with fluoxetine 20mg to 40mg for 8 weeks. The findings suggested effectiveness for the depressive and impulsive symptoms of refractory BPD patients.

Int Psychogeriatr 1991 Spring;3(1):39-52
"BPD in late life"
A record review of 8 elderly patients shows the individuals didn't fit criteria later in life. (Note: in my experience - and subsequent data - most crippling symptoms remain including the mood swings, emptiness, anger and social function problems - L. Heller, M.D.)

J Nerv Ment Dis 1991 Jul,179(7):428-31
"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among children clinically diagnosed as BPD"
"These findings raise the possibility that a diagnosis of borderline personality in childhood can often represent posttraumatic stress disorder."

Clin Electroencephalogr 1991 Jul;22(3):188-92
"Auditory evoked potentials in BPD"
"Paroxysmal (without warning) changes in affect (mood) and behavior, high incidence of soft neurologic signs and frequent EEG alterations, and evidence of clinical response to antiepileptic drugs have suggested cerebral dysfunction, particularly involving the limbic system or reticular activating system." (After doing their research on brain waves they remarked...) "These findings may suggest differences from normals in attention maintenance and limbic system function."(Since many borderlines also have attention deficit disorder, their findings may represent limbic system malfunction in borderlines, and attention maintenance problems in those with ADD - L Heller, MD)