Reliability and Validity of the Borderline Evaluation of Severity Over Time (Best): A Self-Rated Scale to Measure Severity and Change in Persons With Borderline Personality Disorder
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A new self-rated scale to measure severity and change in persons with borderline personality disorder (BPD) is described. The Borderline Evaluation of Severity Over Time (BEST) was developed to rate the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors typical of BPD. Data were collected in the course of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS) for subjects with BPD. The instrument showed moderate test-retest reliability, high internal consistency, and high discriminant validity. Its 15 separate items showed a moderate or better correlation with the total score. The BEST was also sensitive to clinical change as early as week 4 of the RCT and correlated highly with other measures of illness severity. We conclude that the new scale is both reliable and valid in measuring severity and change in persons with BPD.
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The BEST is a reliable and valid measure of severity, as well as change, among persons with BPD.
“Studies have shown it to be a reliable and valid measure of severity, as well as change, among persons with BPD. 32”
From Dialectical behaviour therapy skills training: A feasibility study with active duty military. (2022) · cites this paper as [32]
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“Participants were assessed with a specially designed sociodemographic questionnaire, interviews for the diagnosis of PDs (the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality) (Pfohl, Blum, & Zimmerman, 1997) and co-occurring psychiatric disorders (the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders, Del-Ben et al., 2001 a…”
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“A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript Table 4 Outcome Measures in Offenders Enrolled in STEPPS with BPD alone or BPD plus ASPD Outcome Measure Baseline mean (sd) Comparing BPD + ASPD to BDP alone Test of slope difference ES (se) BPD alone BPD + ASPD F df p BEST Thoughts/Feelin…”
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“Specifically, scores on the BEST have been found to be associated with other self-report measures of BPD symptoms, as well as to distinguish patients with BPD from control participants [52].”
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“Age at participation (in years) median (IQR, range) 49 (17, 20-83) 48 (19, 21-84) .”
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“Research indicates that the BEST has adequate test–retest reliability, as well as good convergent and discriminant validity (Pfohl et al., 2009).”
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“This schedule was used for several reasons: it allowed a comparison to be made for construct validity of the DPQ by comparing the scores in those with dependent personality disorder with the PAS; it records severity of personality disturbance, increasingly recognized to be important in recording personality pathology…”
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“scale composed of 33 items and developed by Crowne and Marlowe in 1960 [14].”
BackgroundInfluentialProfiles of Emotion Regulation in Young People Accessing Youth Mental Health and Drug Treatment
Sloan, E., Hall, K., Youssef, G. J., Moulding, R., Mildred, H., & Staiger, P. K. (2019) · Cognitive Therapy and Research · doi:10.1007/s10608-019-10003-4 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Torres-Soto, J.-F., Moya-Faz, F.-J., Giner-Alegría, C.-A., & Oliveras-Valenzuela, M.-A. (2018) · Anales de Psicología · doi:10.6018/analesps.35.1.333191 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Merrett, Z., Castle, D. J., Thomas, N., Toh, W. L., Beatson, J. A., Broadbear, J. H., Rao, S., & Rossell, S. L. (2022) · Journal of Personality Disorders · doi:10.1521/pedi.2022.36.4.413 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Daros, A. R., & Ruocco, A. C. (2021) · Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment · doi:10.1007/s10862-020-09864-x · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Jiménez, S., de Montis, I. A., & Garza‐Villarreal, E. A. (2023) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0289101 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
“The patients underwent the DBT skills training group and the effect of the intervention was recorded with the self-report instrument Borderline of Severity Evaluation over Time (BEST) [27] applied before and after the intervention.”
MethodInfluentialStewart, N. A. J., Wilkinson‐Tough, M., & Chambers, G. N. (2019) · Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology · doi:10.1080/14789949.2019.1637917 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“those that measure change in core features described by the BPD diagnostic criteria (e.g. the BEST, for which sensitivity to clinical change over time has been demonstrated; Pfohl et al., 2009), together with behaviour- and offence-related outcomes that are relevant to the problems encountered by those with BPD-relate…”
BackgroundTrunko, M. E., Schwartz, T. A., Berner, L. A., Cusack, A., Nakamura, T., Bailer, U. F., Chen, J. Y., & Kaye, W. H. (2017) · Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation · doi:10.1186/s40479-017-0072-6 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Denning, D. M., Ciotti, V., Gioia, A. N., Viranda, T., Reilly, E. E., Berner, L. A., Velkoff, E. A., Anderson, L. K., Kaye, W. H., Wierenga, C. E., et al. (2023) · Personality Disorders Theory Research and Treatment · doi:10.1037/per0000641 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“The Borderline Evaluation of Severity Over Time (BEST; Pfohl et al., 2009) is a 15-item questionnaire that measures the severity of BPD features.”
Ekiz, E., van Alphen, S. V., Ouwens, M., de Paar, J. V., & Videler, A. (2022) · Personality and Mental Health · doi:10.1002/pmh.1558 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Scheidell, J. D., Lejuez, C. W., Golin, C. E., Hobbs, M. M., Wohl, D. A., Adimora, A. A., & Khan, M. R. (2016) · Sexually Transmitted Diseases · doi:10.1097/olq.0000000000000433 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“BPD Symptom Severity We measured BPD symptom severity using a modified version of the BEST.20 Because of the large number of measures in this study and the associated participant burden, we chose to include 5 items from BEST (items were taken from “Thoughts and Feelings” and “Behaviors-Negative” scales by Pfohl et al.…”
MethodArango, I., Miranda, E., Sánchez‐Ferrer, J. C., Fresán, A., Ortega, M. A. R., Vargas, A. N., Barragán, S. C., Villanueva-Valle, J., Muñóz-Delgado, J., & Robles, R. (2019) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2019.04.026 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Recovery and Borderline Personality Disorder: A Description of the Innovative Open Borders Program
Mortimer-Jones, S. M., Morrison, P., Munib, A., Paolucci, F., Neale, S., Bostwick, A., & Hungerford, C. (2016) · Issues in Mental Health Nursing · doi:10.1080/01612840.2016.1191565 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Parental burnout and borderline personality stand out to predict child maltreatment
Schittek, A. C., Roskam, I., & Mikolajczak, M. (2023) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-023-39310-3 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Understanding predictors of change in a day treatment setting for non‐suicidal self‐injury
Slesinger, N. C., Hayes, N. A., & Washburn, J. J. (2020) · Psychology and Psychotherapy Theory Research and Practice · doi:10.1111/papt.12295 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
INTEGRATING SOCIAL COMPARISON INTO THE UNDERSTANDING OF EMOTION REGULATION IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY
Gratz, K. L., Richmond, J. R., Edmonds, K. A., Rose, J. P., & Tull, M. T. (2020) · Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1521/jscp.2020.39.8.727 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Amiri, S., Mirfazeli, F. S., Grafman, J. H., Mohammadsadeghi, H., Eftekhar, M., Karimzad, N., Mohebbi, M., & Nohesara, S. (2023) · Annals of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12991-023-00449-y · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS)
Harvey, R., Blum, N. S., Black, D. W., Burgess, J., & Henley-Cragg, P. (2014) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-0591-1_26 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Self-citationDay, C., Briskman, J., Crawford, M., Foote, L., Harris, L., Boadu, J., McCrone, P., McMurran, M., Michelson, D., Moran, P., et al. (2020) · Health Technology Assessment · doi:10.3310/hta24140 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Camp, J., Hunt, K., & Smith, L. M. (2023) · The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist · doi:10.1017/s1754470x23000211 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“Emerging BPD symptoms were measured in self-report format via the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD; Zanarini et al ., 2003) and the Borderline Evaluation of Severity over Time (BEST; Pfohl et al ., 2009).”
BackgroundMethodMansour, M. E. M., Alsaadany, K. R., Ahmed, M. S., Elmetwalli, A. E., & Serag, I. (2025) · Annals of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12991-025-00561-1 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“It consists of 27 items and each item is rated on a scale from 0 (no symptoms) to 4 (severe symptoms) [46].”
Jiménez, S. E., Ángeles-Valdéz, D., Rodríguez-Delgado, A., Fresán, A., Miranda, E., Alcalá‐Lozano, R., Duque-Alarcón, X., de Montis, I. A., & Garza‐Villarreal, E. A. (2022) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.03.063 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Borderline personality disorder features are associated with inflexible social interpretations
Duda, J. M., Fineberg, S. K., Deng, W., Ma, Y., Everaert, J., Cannon, T. D., & Joormann, J. (2023) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2023.12.036 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Rachid, F. (2019) · Journal of Psychiatric Practice · doi:10.1097/pra.0000000000000350 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Richmond, J. R., Edmonds, K. A., Rose, J. P., & Gratz, K. L. (2021) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110532 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Black, D. W., Blum, N. S., & Allen, J. (2022) · Personality and Mental Health · doi:10.1002/pmh.1538 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Self-citationGratz, K. L., Tull, M. T., Dixon–Gordon, K. L., Turner, B. J., & Chapman, A. L. (2018) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.03.003 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Vai, B., Cazzetta, S., Scalisi, R., Donati, A., Bechi, M., Poletti, S., Sforzini, L., Visintini, R., Maffei, C., & Benedetti, F. (2020) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.060 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Reilly, E. E., Berner, L. A., Trunko, M. E., Schwartz, T. A., Anderson, L. K., Krueger, A., Yu, X., Chen, J. Y., Cusack, A., Nakamura, T., et al. (2022) · Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia Bulimia and Obesity · doi:10.1007/s40519-021-01320-3 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“BEST scores decreased significantly both before and after lamotrigine initiation.”
MethodInfluentialCheney, L., Broadbear, J. H., & Rao, S. (2022) · Australasian Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/10398562211065296 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“The Borderline Evaluation of Severity over Time (BEST) was used to estimate the severity of BPD symptoms.(15)”
MethodBanerjee, D., & Ray, R. (2023) · Consortium Psychiatricum · doi:10.17816/cp13622 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“The BEST scale is detailed in Box 1 [7].”
BackgroundMethodBlack, D., Blum, N., & Allen, J. (2018) · Comprehensive Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2018.10.005 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Self-citationGratz, K. L., Berghoff, C. R., Richmond, J. R., Vidaña, A. G., & Dixon–Gordon, K. L. (2020) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.22961 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Torres-Soto, J. F., Iborra, P., Giner-Alegría, C. A., & Moya‐Faz, F. J. (2021) · Clínica y Salud · doi:10.5093/clysa2021a9 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“The instrument has shown moderate test-retest reliability, high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .90, - .92), discriminant validity, correlation with the severity of the symptoms of BPD, and sensitivity to assess severity and clinical change (Pfohl et al., 2009).”
MethodInfluentialScanlon, F., Scheidell, J. D., Cuddeback, G. S., Samuelsohn, D., Wohl, D. A., Lejuez, C. W., Latimer, W. W., & Khan, M. R. (2018) · Journal of Correctional Health Care · doi:10.1177/1078345818782440 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“Anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) was measured using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV) module (First et al., 1995), and borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptom severity was measured using the Borderline Evaluation of Severity O…”
MethodBlack, D. W., Blum, N. S., & Allen, J. (2018) · Personality and Mental Health · doi:10.1002/pmh.1431 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Self-citationRichmond, J. R., Edmonds, K. A., Rose, J. P., & Gratz, K. L. (2020) · Personality Disorders Theory Research and Treatment · doi:10.1037/per0000381 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Psychoeducation for borderline personality difficulties: a preliminary study
Rocca, F., Finamore, C., Stamp, S., Kuhn-Thompson, F., & Dale, O. (2021) · Mental Health Review Journal · doi:10.1108/mhrj-04-2020-0023 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Pfohl, B., Blum, N., St. John, D., McCormick, B., Allen, J., & Black, D. W.
- Affiliations
- University of Iowa (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality Disorders
- Publisher
- Guilford Publications
- Published
- 2009-06
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 281-293
- ISSN
- 0885-579X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3608461
- OpenAlex
- W2070419405
- Cited by
- 169
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 6.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Personality Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH063746, MH-63746)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Keywords
- borderline personality disorder, self-report scale, test-retest reliability, internal consistency, discriminant validity, psychometric validation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Affect, Borderline Personality Disorder, Depressive Disorder, Major, Major Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Male, Predictive Value of Tests, Problem Solving, Surveys and Questionnaires, Severity of Illness Index, Suicide, Attempted, Reproducibility of Results
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