Borderline personality disorder: an adaptation of the Taiwan short version of the screening inventory into Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract Objective The current study presents the translation and adaptation of the 20-item Taiwan version of the Borderline Personality Inventory (BPI) into Brazilian Portuguese (BPI-P). Methods After translation and back-translation, the Brazilian Portuguese version was administered to three samples: patients with borderline personality disorder, psychiatric patients with comorbid substance use disorder and volunteers with no reported mental disorders. Results Significant differences between groups for borderline scores (analysis of variance [ANOVA], F = 52.923, p = 0.01) were found but there were no significant correlations between scores for borderline personality disorder and alcohol or nicotine dependence. The BPI-P had satisfactory validity for borderline personality disorder, even when anxiety and depression were present, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.931 at a cutoff point of 14. Conclusion This study provides support for the potential utility of the BPI-P as a screening instrument for clinical practice in Portuguese speaking countries, including outpatients with alcohol and nicotine use disorders in early or sustained remission.