McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder

The McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD) is a standardized, diagnostic rating scale designed to screen for borderline personality disorder (BPD) in those 15 years old or older. It is a self-report questionnaire that asks individuals to report the presence of symptoms they experienced that are characteristic of BPD. The assessment was released in 2003 after being developed by Mary C. Zanarini and her colleagues at the McLean Hospital.

Scoring

The MSI-BPD consists of 10 yes-or-no questions, each corresponding to a symptom of BPD. The items cover a wide range of BPD symptoms, such as impulsivity, affective instability, and identity disturbance. All items are written such that a positive response indicates the presence of BPD symptoms. Each of the 10 items is rated on a scale, with 1 corresponding to "yes" and 0 corresponding to "no".

The MSI-BPD has been found to have good sensitivity (.81) and specificity (.85) in a sample of non-psychotic and non-manic subjects. The internal consistency of the MSI-BPD was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha with a resulting coefficient of 0.742. The test-retest reliability of the MSI-BPD was also found to be good.