Why are women more often diagnosed with borderline personality disorder than men? Borderline personality disorder is diagnosed primarily in women. There is a male to female ratio of approximately 3:1 for this disorder. Theories for why borderline personality disorder occurs more often in women: Sexual abuse, which is common in the childhood histories of borderline patients, occurs more often in women than in men. - Women receive more inconsistent and invalidating messages in this society. - Women are more vulnerable to BPD because they are socialized to be more dependent on others and more sensitive to rejection. -Clinicians tend to be biased. Studies have shown that mental health professionals tend to diagnose BPD more often in women than in men, even when patient profiles are identical except for the patient's gender. - Men seek less often psychiatric help.- Men are more likely to be treated only. for their alcoholism or drug addiction; their borderline symptoms go unnoticed because BPD is considered a female disorder. Borderline women are found in the mental health system; Borderline men are in prison. (www.bpdcentral.com) Skodol, A. and Bender, D (2003) also discussed several theories regarding gender bias related to this diagnosis. Their research on gender bias in borderline personality disorder indicates that: - The high base rate of women in clinical settings may be one reason why clinicians perceive more women to have BPD. - Women and men have different symptoms, such as borderline personality disorder. criterion for identity disorder, which tends to be significantly more common in women. Female patients tend to receive unwarranted BPD diagnoses more often when the clinician is female, suggesting less acceptance of female borderline traits and behaviors by women. - Sampling bias in research - Biological differences in which men show more aggression and externalizing behaviors and women show more behavioral inhibition and internalizing. - Sociocultural differences Johnson, DM., Shea M.