Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines. Psychometric Properties and Validity

Previous efforts to test the psychometric properties of the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB) have been hampered by small and diagnostically restricted contrast groups. The present study samples both inpatients and outpatients and includes both schizophrenic and personality disorder contrast groups. The DIB performs well in distinguishing patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association, 1980) diagnoses of borderline personality disorder from psychotic inpatients and personality disordered outpatients. However, there is no evidence to support the psychometric rationale for combining the 29 statements used to assess the borderline construct into the five area scores presently utilized in making a DIB borderline diagnosis. We did not replicate a previous discriminant function model and suggest that further improvements in the construct validity of the DIB will require a clearer delineation of the features of the construct as well as additional studies of the psychometric properties of the present instrument.