Current Psychological and Psychopharmacologic Treatments of Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe, chronic, disabling condition characterized by pervasive difficulties in interpersonal relationships, instability of mood states, and impulsive aggressive behavior. 69-75% of individuals with the disorder have self-destructive behaviors including self-mutilation, suicide attempts, abuse of alcohol and drugs and completed suicide rates ranging between 3-9% [1]. The life-threatening quality of this symptomatology requires extensive use of health care resources, and successful treatment is often difficult to achieve. This chapter on BPD treatment strategies begins by providing necessary background on factors which influence choice of intervention and outcome; including psychopathology, illness course, traumatic antecedents and biological basis underlying this disorder. Next, current empirically validated treatment studies and American Psychiatric Association (APA) treatment guidelines for BPD are reviewed. Lastly, shortcomings and inadequacies of the treatment literature are highlighted.