Comparing of Symptoms, Defense Mechanisms and Coping Styles in Women and Men With Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is the most common personality disorder in psychiatric settings but it still presents with some ambiguities in its symptoms, etiology, individual, and social consequences. The purpose of this study was to compare the severity of BPD symptoms, defense mechanisms, and coping styles among men and women with this disorder. This is a cross-sectional study with two study groups conducted in Hamadan Province from March 2018 to June 2018. The simple random sampling method was used to select the study subjects. The sample included 27 men and 27 women with BPD who were referred to the offices of 3 psychiatrists during the study time. The study variables included the severity of Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms assessed based on Borderline Personality Disorder Severity Index (BPDSI) and mature, immature and neurotic defense mechanisms assessed based on the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) and coping styles of emotional, problem and avoidance-focused assessed based on the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) questionnaire among women and men with this disorder. The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and t-test for independent groups and Mann-Whitney U test in SPSS V. 24. The results indicate that the severity of BPD in male patients is significantly more than women (U=199, P<0.05) and men significantly use the immature (t=4.88, P<0.05) and neurotic defense mechanisms more than female patients (U=58, P<0.05), but the mature defense mechanisms less than women (t=-5.54, P<0.05). Male patients also significantly use more the emotional-focused (t=6.73, P<0.05) and the avoidance-focused coping styles (U=125, P<0.05), but less the problem-focused coping style compared to female patients (t=-3.47, P<0.05). While, the prevalence of this disorder is more reported in women, the severity of symptoms, and use of immature and neurotic defense mechanisms and emotional and avoidant-focused coping style in men is more than those in women suffering from this disorder. The reason for this finding should be investigated in future research.