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Resume Les patients atteints du trouble de la personnalite borderline sont souvent diagnostiques a tort comme ayant un trouble bipolaire et inversement. En effet, un certain nombre de caracteristiques communes aux deux troubles pourraient expliquer ce probleme : l’instabilite affective ainsi que l’impulsivite representent des facteurs de confusion et contribuent au risque de mauvais diagnostic. Cependant, ces caracteristiques se manifestent de manieres differentes selon la pathologie. Les dimensions emotionnelles et impulsives de 40 patients (21 patients presentant un trouble bipolaire et 19 patients presentant un trouble de la personnalite borderline) ont ete comparees a l’aide des echelles ALS, AIM et UPPS. Les patients borderline obtiennent des scores significativement plus eleves que les patients bipolaires aux echelles ALS et AIM. En ce qui concerne l’UPPS, les patients borderline presentent des scores significativement plus eleves que les patients bipolaires aux dimensions « manque de premeditation » et « manque de perseverance » ; en revanche, les patients bipolaires ont obtenu des scores significativement plus eleves que les patients borderline a la dimension « urgence negative ». Cette etude montre que l’on peut differencier le trouble bipolaire du trouble de la personnalite borderline grâce aux dimensions affectives ainsi qu’aux differentes dimensions de l’impulsivite.

Studies have shown that patients with borderline personality disorder are often misdiagnosed to have bipolar disorder and conversely. Indeed, a number of characteristics common to both disorders could explain this problem: emotional instability as well as impulsivity represent confounding factors and contribute to the risk of misdiagnosis. However, it appears that these characteristics manifest themselves in different ways according to the pathology. The aim of the study is to show differences between affective lability, emotional intensity and impulsivity dimensions. The clinical aim is to refine bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder diagnosis, to improve psychological care for these patients in the long-term.We compared the emotional and impulsive dimensions in two groups of patients: a group of 21 patients with bipolar disorder and a group of 19 patients with borderline personality disorder. Tools: ALS, a self-report questionnaire to evaluate affective lability, AIM, a self-report questionnaire to see affective intensity, and UPPS, a self-report questionnaire to measure impulsivity according to several dimensions.The results indicate that borderline patients scored significantly higher than bipolar patients at the ALS and AIM scales. Regarding the UPPS, borderline patients scored significantly higher than bipolar patients for the dimensions "lack of premeditation" and "lack of perseverance"; however, bipolar patients had significantly higher scores than borderline patients for the dimension "negative emergency".This study shows that bipolar disorder and borderline personality can be differentiated thanks to emotional dimensions as well as different dimensions of impulsivity: borderline patients appear to have an affective lability and intensity more important than bipolar patients; it also appears that impulsivity manifests itself differently according to the disorder.