The Association Between Illicit Drug Use, Borderline Personality Disorder And Depression In A Help-Seeking Sample Of Adolescents

Risk-taking behavior is a common phenomenon in adolescence. Even prevalence rates for illicit drug use are considerably high in youth and associated with a range of psychiatric disorders, especially depression and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). However, there is a lack of data investigating differences in psychopathology between different substance user groups. Therefore, aim of the study was to investigate occurrence of depression and BPD symptoms in different drug risk groups (no use vs. occasional use vs. frequent use). Further aim of the study was to examine risk profiles regarding single BPD criteria. Data of n = 347 adolescents (81.7 % female, mean age 14.95, SD = 1.50) presenting at the specialized outpatient clinic for risk-taking and self-harming behavior (AtR!Sk) in Heidelberg were analyzed. Results show that BPD is clearly associated with illicit drug use in adolescence. There is no difference between occasional and frequent users in terms of mean number of BPD criteria. However, frequent users differ from occasional users regarding greater number of impulsivity and anger criteria. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables there was no association between drug use and depression. Since even single events of illicit drug use are associated with higher levels of BPD, clinicians should rapidly target to stop consumption. Further, psychotherapeutic interventions for BPD in high-risk consumers should especially focus on facilitating adaptive emotion regulation skills in regards to impulsivity and anger.