McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder

The McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD) is a ten-item, true-false, self-report questionnaire.

Each endorsed item is worth 1 point on a scale that ranges from 0 to 10.

1 = yes 0 = no

The optimal cutoff score is 7 or more items as it has both high sensitivity (.81) and specificity (.85).

MSI-BPD should NOT be used as the sole diagnostic measure.

The purpose of the evaluation is to:

Since the questionnaire relies on client self-report, all responses should be verified by the clinician, and a definitive diagnosis is made on clinical grounds taking into account how well the client understood the questionnaire, as well as other relevant information from the client.

The high levels of sensitivity and specificity found for the MSI-BPD do not mean that it should be used as the sole diagnostic measure in either a clinical or research setting. Rather, its value lies in helping to suggest which patients or subjects should be evaluated more thoroughly. In clinical practice, a careful psychiatric history and thorough diagnostic evaluation, which might or might not include the use of a semistructured diagnostic interview, is still the standard of practice. For most research projects, reliance on a semistructured diagnostic interview for BPD seems warranted and well worth the added cost and time involved as the MSI-BPD will probably misidentify a certain number of subjects, particularly those over the age of 30.