Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

Symptoms of BPD

• Mood swings
• Periods of intense depression, irritability, and/or anxiety lasting from a few hours to a few days
• Inappropriate, intense or uncontrolled anger
• Impulsiveness in spending, sex, substance use, shoplifting, reckless driving, or binge eating
• Recurring suicidal threats or self-injurious behavior
• Unstable, intense personal relationships
• Extreme black-and-white views of people and experiences, sometimes alternating between “all good” idealization and “all bad” devaluation
• Persistent uncertainly about self-image, long-term goals, friendships and values
• Chronic boredom or feelings of emptiness
• Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment

Treatment for BPD

Medication

• Reduces anxiety, depression and impulsivity
• Helps one deal with harmful patterns of thinking and interacting
• Fails to correct ingrained character difficulties
• Antidepressants
• Anticonvulsants
• Neuroleptics

Psychotherapy

Short-term hospitalization when necessary during times of extreme stress, impulsivity or substance abuse

• Generally difficult and long term
• BPD symptoms often interfere with therapy
• Usually effective

What is BPD?

• Fairly common biologically based disorder
• Characterized by impulsivity and instability in mood, self-image and personal relationships
• Diagnosed more often in females than in males

Causes of BPD

• Unclear, but psychological and biological factors may be involved
• Originally thought to border on schizophrenia
• Related to serious depressive illness
• Associated with neurological and attention deficit disorders
• Difficulties in psychological development during childhood due to such things as abuse or neglect may create identity and personality problems
• More research is needed

Simultaneously present disorders

• Serious depressive illness, including bipolar disorder
• Eating disorders
• Alcohol/drug abuse
• Sleep disorder