Borderline Personality Disorder
What is a Personality Disorder?
A personality disorder is a severe disturbance in the
behaviour of the individual, and is nearly always associated with considerable personal and social
disruption. Personality disorders tend to appear in late childhood or adolescence and continues to be manifest into adulthood. It is
unlikely that the diagnosis of a personality disorder will be
made before 16 or 17 years of age.
Borderline Personality Disorder patients often self harm
Diagnostic Criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder
Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. | |
A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships | |
identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable | |
impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially | |
Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or | |
Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., | |
Chronic feelings of emptiness | |
Intense anger or difficulty controlling anger | |
Stress-related paranoid ideation or severe |
Treatment
During brief reactive psychoses, low doses of antipsychotic drugs | |
antidepressants have
been found to be | |
use of anti-anxiety medication may be
used to relieve the | |
Many borderline patients will only see a therapist during a crisis. The therapist's crisis intervention should focus on solving the patient's immediate problems | |
Borderline patients need many hours of psychotherapy | |
Due to their suicide attempts, or brief psychotic
episodes, |