Q. After surfing the net under "emotional abuse of Women" one day, I discovered a web site about BPD. It describes my husband to a "T", and could have been written about him...I was in shock...and also relieved to find it, as it helps me put his behavior into a box...instead of the chaos that it has been. Anyway, I visited w/ my husband about this, and he shared w/ me that he has an extra x chromosome. In their words, most men's chromosomes are xy, but after having his tested, it was discovered that his is xxy. He told me that 90% of the prison population have this extra chromosome which would account for his anger problem. Do you know this to be true, or what are your thoughts on it? And is there a correlation between men having BPD and an extra chromosome? In other words, do men with an extra chromosome have BPD?

A. I do not know anything about an extra X chromosome leading to BPD-like behavior in men. Without going into the wherefore and whys of the chromosomal variants, suffice it to say that you cannot make the extra chromosome go away. Therefore, you need to treat the symptoms arising form the disorder he has. Using medications and/or therapy to do this makes sense. If he has BPD, I would treat him like any other patient with BPD.