Childhood trauma and Borderline Personality Disorder: an integrative literature review

ABSTRACT

Objective

To analyze the content of the literature regarding the relationship between childhood trauma and the diagnosis of BPD in adulthood, in order to understand the specificities of the etiological bases of BPD.

Material and Methods

This is an integrative review where a search was carried out in PubMed, SciELO and Lilacs databases, using the descriptors “TRAUMA INFANTIL E TRANSTORNO DA PERSONALIDADE BORDERLINE” and “CHILDHOOD TRAUMA AND BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER”. Full articles published from 2011 to 2021 in scientific journals in Portuguese, Spanish and English that portrayed the relationship between childhood trauma and the diagnosis of BPD were included. Articles without an explicit methodological description of the BPD sample definition through validated scales and/or based on the DSM criteria and review studies were excluded.

Results

423 articles were identified, and, after screening, 23 eligible articles remained. 65.2% of the works included were cross-sectional studies and 34.8% were case-control studies. All studies addressed sexual abuse, and most of them also addressed physical abuse (95.6%), emotional abuse (86.9%), emotional neglect (82.6%) and physical neglect (78.2%). All the works showed an association between traumatic experiences in childhood and the diagnosis of BPD.

Conclusions

Childhood trauma can be seen as a risk factor for the diagnosis of BPD, as well as being associated with greater severity of symptoms and worse prognosis.

Borderline Personality Disorder; Childhood Trauma; Literature review