Educational use only. The MSI-BPD is a screening instrument, not a diagnostic one. Only a licensed clinician with a full history can diagnose Borderline Personality Disorder. If you are in crisis, please contact a licensed therapist or, if there is risk, a crisis line.

Calibrated · MSI-BPD

The BPD Test

10 yes/no items. The screen the field actually uses.

Ten yes/no items, each mapped to one of the nine DSM-5 criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder. The instrument McLean Hospital’s research group built and validated. Read against the published cutoff of 7 and the more sensitive cutoff of 5; at 7 the screen catches about 80 in 100 people who have the pattern and clears about 66 in 100 who do not (Zimmerman and Balling 2021, 11 studies).

10 items
About 2 minutes to complete
9 DSM-5 criteria
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Free. The full tier read returned.

What this measures

Borderline Personality Disorder pattern

BPD is one of the most stigmatised, most often-misdiagnosed personality disorders. The cultural shorthand “BPD = difficult woman” is not what the diagnosis actually describes clinically; the literature describes a configuration of affective instability, identity uncertainty, intense relationships, impulsivity in multiple domains, and (often) self-harm or suicidality. The suffering, where it’s there, is real.

The MSI-BPD is the most widely cited brief screening instrument. It maps directly to the DSM-5 BPD criteria and was designed for the contemplation stage, when someone wants to know whether the pattern they suspect in themselves is registering at the level the field takes seriously, before booking with a clinician.

BPD is also one of the most treatable Cluster B disorders when treated correctly (DBT, MBT, TFP, schema therapy). The cultural pessimism around the diagnosis is not supported by the outcome literature.

Source instrument: Zanarini, M. C., Vujanovic, A. A., Parachini, E. A., Boulanger, J. L., Frankenburg, F. R., & Hennen, J. (2003). A screening measure for BPD: the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD). Journal of Personality Disorders, 17(6), 568-573.

Who built this

Kanika Rose · Diagnosed ASPD · Author

I do not have BPD; my own diagnosis is on a different axis (ASPD). What I can offer here is items reproduced exactly from Zanarini’s validated screen, a score read against both cutoffs the validations argue over rather than only the one, and tier profiles that take the construct seriously without leaning into the cultural stigma the diagnosis carries. The voice of the result page is mine; the instrument is Zanarini’s.

BPD is a serious diagnosis with serious treatment options. If your score is high, please see a clinician with specific BPD experience, not a generalist. The pattern is shiftable, more so than most Cluster B configurations, when treated by someone trained for it.

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Frequently Asked Questions

The McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD) is a 10-item yes/no screen for BPD developed by Mary Zanarini and colleagues at McLean Hospital, published in 2003. Each item maps to one of the DSM criteria for BPD. It is the most widely cited brief screening instrument for BPD in the academic literature. A score of 7 or higher is a positive screen: pooled across the 11 validations since, it catches about 80 in 100 who have the pattern and clears about 66 in 100 who do not. Zanarini's original sample gave 85% specificity rather than 66%, and quoting that number alone is what makes other BPD quizzes sound more certain than the instrument is.
Because the validations disagree. Zanarini's 2003 paper published a cutoff of 7. Several later validations found that 5 catches more true cases at the price of more false positives, so the result page reads your score against both: at or above 7, the published cutoff; between 5 and 6, above the more sensitive cutoff some validations use; or below both. At the cutoff of 7 the screen catches about 80 in 100 people who have the pattern and clears about 66 in 100 who do not (Zimmerman and Balling 2021, Journal of Personality Disorders, 11 studies, n=1,473), so outside a clinic most positives are false positives. This is a screen. If it flags you, the next step is an assessment with a clinician who has BPD experience, not a second screen.
No. The MSI-BPD is a screening tool, not a diagnostic one. A high score (≥7) is the strongest signal a brief instrument can give for considering a full clinical interview, but only a licensed clinician using interview-based instruments (DIB-R, SCID-II) and a full personal history can actually diagnose BPD. We strongly recommend that anyone scoring at or above the cutoff sees a clinician with specific BPD experience.
A screen cannot separate them, and the reason is what it does not ask. The distinction the field uses is time course: in BPD the mood shift is reactive and short, minutes to hours, and it usually follows something that happened between you and another person. In bipolar disorder an episode is sustained, days to weeks, and it is far less tied to what somebody said. The MSI-BPD asks nothing about episode length or about sleep, energy and activity, which is where the bipolar answer lives, so a high score here rules nothing in or out. The two also co-occur, which is why this is an assessment question rather than a quiz question.
They share the features most people notice first: affective instability, dissociation under stress, and a self that feels unstable. They differ on the ones nobody puts in an infographic. Chronic emptiness, frantic avoidance of abandonment and identity diffusion sit closer to the centre of BPD; intrusion symptoms, the flashbacks and the reliving, sit closer to the centre of CPTSD, which is a diagnosis in ICD-11 and not in the DSM. Most people with BPD have a trauma history and not all do, and most people with CPTSD do not meet BPD criteria. A clinician experienced in both is the only way to settle it; a ten-item screen is not.
The overlap is impulsivity and emotional dysregulation, and it is a real overlap rather than a coincidence of wording. What separates them is what surrounds it. ADHD brings inattention and an onset in childhood, before the age of twelve. BPD brings fear of abandonment, an unstable sense of self, and relationships that swing between extremes. This screen asks about none of the attention items, so it cannot speak to ADHD at all, and the two are frequently diagnosed together, so finding one is not evidence against the other.
Several reasons. The mood reactivity is sometimes treated as bipolar II. The dissociative and reactivity features overlap with complex PTSD. The chronic emptiness and identity uncertainty look like depression. The cultural stigma around BPD makes some clinicians reluctant to apply the label. The result is that many people with BPD spend years in the wrong frame of treatment. If your score here is high, ask any clinician you see directly whether they have specific BPD training (DBT, MBT, TFP) before committing to treatment.
Because the MSI-BPD was deliberately designed as a brief screen. Its 10 items cover the nine DSM-5 BPD criteria (item 10 covers the abandonment-avoidance criterion explicitly). Adding items would either pad the construct or test something different. Longer instruments exist (the PAI-BOR has 24 items, the BPDSI has 40+) but they are interview-paced; the MSI-BPD is the standard brief self-report.
If you scored at or above 7 (the Zanarini cutoff), yes, and specifically a clinician with BPD experience, not just any therapist. The diagnosis is famously hard to read accurately without that experience. If your score was in the 5-6 'High' tier, it's also worth seeing someone, since the configuration is real even if it's below the formal screening cutoff. Crisis resources are linked at the bottom of the result page if needed.
Yes, and substantially better than the cultural stigma around the diagnosis suggests. BPD has the best treatment outcome of the Cluster B personality disorders. Specialised therapies (DBT, MBT, TFP, schema therapy) all show strong evidence in controlled trials. Many people with BPD see substantial reduction in symptoms over 5-10 years of treatment, with many no longer meeting diagnostic criteria. The challenge is finding the right clinician, not whether the work is possible.
Not directly. This is a self-report; your partner has to take it for it to score them. What the test CAN do is help you recognise the configuration in someone you know by reading the High and Very High tier profiles on the result page. The Sociopathic Dating Bible's chapters on the BPD pattern in relationships are the longer-form companion to that question. Also: BPD in a partner is genuinely difficult, but the cultural shorthand 'dating someone with BPD = abuse' is not supported by the literature; the pattern is more nuanced than that.
Stored only in your browser session by default. We do not sell or share quiz responses. If you choose to register or capture your result via email, the data lives on our servers under standard access controls and you can request deletion at any time.
Probably not in this order. If you are in active crisis (suicidal thoughts, self-harm, severe dissociation), please contact a licensed therapist or a crisis line first. Your country's helpline information should be a search away. This screening tool is most useful at the contemplation stage, you suspect a pattern, you want a sharper read, you're stable enough to take in the answer. If that's not where you are right now, bookmark the page and come back when it is.
The relationship between BPD and trauma is real but more complicated than the simplification 'BPD is just complex PTSD with a worse name'. Most people with BPD have trauma histories; not all do. Most people with complex PTSD do not meet BPD criteria. The two diagnoses share features (affective instability, identity issues, dissociation) but differ on others (chronic emptiness, frantic abandonment avoidance, identity diffusion are more central to BPD; intrusion symptoms more central to CPTSD). A clinician with experience in both is best placed to make the differential. Don't assume one or the other from a self-report alone.

Related reading

Wide map

The Dark Mirror Assessment

BPD is one of six Cluster B types the Dark Mirror profiles. The wide map: take this if you want to see how BPD traits sit in the broader personality landscape, including the differential against HPD and NPD.

Sister quiz

The Sociopath Test (LSRP)

BPD and ASPD/Psychopathy show high comorbidity in the literature, particularly via the Secondary (impulsive) subscale. If your BPD score was high, the LSRP read is informative.

Companion quiz

The Daughter Pattern Assessment

BPD has a known relationship with childhood emotional invalidation; many women with BPD configurations had narcissistic mothers. The Daughter Pattern is the assessment for that household-level question.

Book

The Sociopathic Dating Bible

The chapter on the BPD pattern in relationships covers both sides, what it's like to date someone with BPD, and what it's like to be the one with BPD trying to date.

Guide

Cluster B: the complete guide

The four patterns the DSM puts in one cluster, what separates them, and why they are so often confused for each other.

Full disclaimer

Educational and reflective use only. The MSI-BPD is a screening instrument, not a diagnostic one. Only a licensed clinician with a full history can diagnose Borderline Personality Disorder. BPD is one of the most often-misdiagnosed personality disorders; if your score raised concerns, please see a clinician with specific BPD experience rather than acting on the score alone. If you are in crisis, contact a licensed therapist or, if there is risk to yourself, a crisis line.

How this test is scored
The instrument
The McLean Screening Instrument for BPD, MSI-BPD (Zanarini et al. 2003). 10 items.
How it is scored
Ten yes or no items counted straight, read against the published cutoff of seven and the more sensitive cutoff of five.
What it is compared against
No norms: a cutoff. Pooled across eleven studies (n=1,473) it runs 80% sensitivity and 66% specificity at seven (Zimmerman and Balling 2021).
What the research says is wrong with it
At 66% specificity, outside a clinic most positive screens are false positives. This is the most clinically loaded quiz on the site and it is a screen, not an assessment.
What a result is not
A result here is a trait profile, never a disorder and never a diagnosis. Only a clinician with your full history can diagnose anything, and no self-report questionnaire can.