The McLean Study of Adult Development (MSAD)

This chapter first describes the design and instruments (both semi-structured interviews and self-report measures) used during each subject’s index admission to determine study eligibility and study group assignment. It also details diagnostic and demographic features of both study groups: borderline patients and Axis II comparison subjects. In addition, it details baseline results pertaining to childhood adversity, family history of psychiatric disorder, co-occurring disorders, subsyndromal phenomenology (inner pain and aspects of dissociation), onset of self-mutilation, and psychiatric treatment history prior to study entrance. This introduction to the study and its initial findings sets the background against which our prospective findings occur—findings pertaining to six-year follow-up, 10-year follow-up, and 16-year follow-up.