Emotionally unstable personality disorder

# Overview
Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder is a medical diagnosis equivalent to Borderline personality disorder but belonging to the ICD-10 system of classification.  The diagnostic criteria differ slightly from that of the DSM-IV-TR system used by the American Psychiatric Association.

# ICD-10 diagnostic criteria

## F60.3 Emotionally unstable personality disorder

## F60.30 Impulsive type
- The general criteria for personality disorder (F60) must be met. 
- At least three of the following must be present, one of which must be (2):
marked tendency to act unexpectedly and without consideration of the consequences;
marked tendency to quarrelsome behaviour and to conflicts with others, especially when impulsive acts are thwarted or criticized;
liability to outbursts of anger or violence, with inability to control the resulting behavioural explosions;
difficulty in maintaining any course of action that offers no immediate reward;
unstable and capricious mood.
- marked tendency to act unexpectedly and without consideration of the consequences;
- marked tendency to quarrelsome behaviour and to conflicts with others, especially when impulsive acts are thwarted or criticized;
- liability to outbursts of anger or violence, with inability to control the resulting behavioural explosions;
- difficulty in maintaining any course of action that offers no immediate reward;
- unstable and capricious mood.

### F60.31 Borderline type
- The general criteria for personality disorder (F60) must be met. 
- At least three of the symptoms mentioned in criterion 2 for F60.30 must be present , with at least two of the following in addition:
disturbances in and uncertainty about self-image, aims, and internal preferences (including sexual);
liability to become involved in intense and unstable relationships, often leading to emotional crisis;
excessive efforts to avoid abandonment;
recurrent threats or acts of self-harm;
chronic feelings of emptiness.
- disturbances in and uncertainty about self-image, aims, and internal preferences (including sexual);
- liability to become involved in intense and unstable relationships, often leading to emotional crisis;
- excessive efforts to avoid abandonment;
- recurrent threats or acts of self-harm;
- chronic feelings of emptiness.

## F60 Disorders of adult personality and behaviour
- There is evidence that the individual's characteristic and enduring patterns of inner experience and behaviour as a whole deviate markedly from the culturally expected and accepted range (or "norm"). Such deviation must be manifest in more than one of the following areas:
cognition (i.e. ways of perceiving and interpreting things, people, and events; forming attitudes and images of self and others);
affectivity (range, intensity, and appropriateness of emotional arousal and response);
control over impulses and gratification of needs;
manner of relating to others and of handling interpersonal situations.
- cognition (i.e. ways of perceiving and interpreting things, people, and events; forming attitudes and images of self and others);
- affectivity (range, intensity, and appropriateness of emotional arousal and response);
- control over impulses and gratification of needs;
- manner of relating to others and of handling interpersonal situations.
- The deviation must manifest itself pervasively as behaviour that is inflexible, maladaptive, or otherwise dysfunctional across a broad range of personal and social situations (i.e. not being limited to one specific "triggering" stimulus or situation).
- There is personal distress, or adverse impact on the social environment, or both, clearly attributable to the behaviour referred to in criterion 2.
- There must be evidence that the deviation is stable and of long duration, having its onset in late childhood or adolescence.
- The deviation cannot be explained as a manifestation or consequence of other adult mental disorders, although episodic or chronic conditions from sections F00-F59 or F70-F79 of this classification may coexist with, or be superimposed upon, the deviation.
- Organic brain disease, injury, or dysfunction must be excluded as the possible cause of the deviation. (If an organic causation is demonstrable, category F07.- should be used.)