Child abuse: A cause of borderline personality disorder?

Traumatic events in childhood — such as physical or sexual abuse — increase the risk of borderline personality disorder and other personality disorders. But the exact cause of borderline personality disorder isn't known. Most likely, it's caused by a combination of heredity and environmental factors.

Borderline personality disorder is a serious emotional disturbance that's characterized by unsatisfactory and unstable personal relationships, intense anger, impulsive actions, feelings of emptiness, and real or imagined fears of abandonment. It may be that emotional trauma at a time when the brain isn't fully developed alters something in the brain that decreases the ability to effectively deal with subsequent stressful situations.

Childhood abuse can also be associated with other mental illnesses including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders and substance abuse disorders.