Study of childhood trauma in borderline personality sufferers in Egypt

Hesham Ahmed Eldabah; Tarek Kamal Molokhia; Reham Abdel-Haleem Abou-Elwafa; Ahmed Mohamed Abdelkerim; Mostafa Kamaleldin Elsaadany

Hesham Ahmed Eldabah, Doctor Department of psychiatry, faculty of medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt
Tarek Kamal Molokhia, Professor Department of psychiatry, faculty of medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt
Reham Abdel-Haleem Abou-Elwafa, Assistant professor Department of clinical pathology, faculty of medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt
Ahmed Mohamed Abdelkerim, Doctor Department of psychiatry, faculty of medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt
Mostafa Kamaleldin Elsaadany, Professor Department of psychiatry, faculty of medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt

Keywords: Borderline personality disorder, BPD, Childhood trauma. Physical abuse

Abstract

Abstract

Background: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is both a common and severe mental health disorder. Patients with BPD reports higher rates of childhood trauma (sexual, physical, and emotional abuse) compared to other personality disorders and normal populations. However, there is limited research on history of childhood trauma in this population in Egypt. The aim of this paper was to study the profile of childhood trauma experience among Egyptian patients with BPD and to study its relationship with BPD symptoms.

Methods: A case control study was carried out on a sample of 128 participants. This study used data collected in Arabic language from 64 patients with BPD who presented to Al-Hadra University Hospital outpatient psychiatry clinic and compared them with age and gender-matched control. The data collection tools were a pre-designed structured interview for collecting socio-demographic data, medical and psychiatric history, Structured Clinical Interview for Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID-II), Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and Borderline Symptom List 23 (BSL-23).

Results: There has been a significant increase in the odds of exposure of all types of childhood trauma in the BPD group. Upon further analysis with multivariate logistic regression, only physical abuse (OR=30.53, 95%CI=2.77-986.87, p=0.015), and sexual abuse (OR=5.41, 95%CI=2.17-530.74, p=0.022) showed significant high OR. Physical abuse was found to be significantly associated with higher BSL-23 score (p=0.027). With additional multivariate linear regression analysis, there were no significant association between any of the subtypes of childhood trauma and BPD symptoms.

Conclusion: Nearly all subtypes of Childhood trauma are highly prevalent among Egyptian BPD patients and physical abuse showed strongest association with the severity of BPD symptoms.