Young women with personality disorders (PD) are common in psychiatric inpatient care. The clinical impression is that there is a considerably increased incidence the last decade.

To show changes in frequency and extent of inpatient care for PD, and the relation to suicide.

All admissions for inpatient care given a primary diagnosis of PD in compulsory or voluntary care years 1990 to 2010 were extracted from the National Patient Register. Subsequently, data from the Cause of Death Register were extracted and linked for the same time period.

There were more than 60,000 admissions for PD in Sweden 1990–2010. During the last ten years there was a doubling of the number of yearly admissions for young women in the ages 18 to 24 years, and inpatient care hospitalization for PD are currently six times more common for women than for men in this age group. The same is true for compulsory care. Every fifth woman in this age group who had committed suicide had been treated for PD within the last five year period prior to the suicide.

The incidence of inpatient care in young women with PD did show a sharp rise during the last decade. There was a corresponding increase in suicide with a diagnosis of PD. Guidelines for treatment and care exist but more knowledge and action plans directed both to health care and the society are urgently needed.