preview

Borderline Personality Disorder Summary

Decent Essays

In Lieb et al.’s (2004) article, they discuss Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and how various patients are affected by this disorder. The clinical signs for BPD consist of persistent pattern of instability in emotional dysregulation, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and impulse control. For those with this disorder, self-abuse is common secondary to emotional pain and can sometimes lead to suicidal tendencies. Traumatic childhood events, genetic factors, and neurobiological factors are found to be developmental causes for BPD. However, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and hospital programs are found to be effective treatments for patients as well as medication treatment to help reduce depression, anxiety, and impulsive aggression …show more content…

Neuroimaging revealed that the prefrontal region, like the anterior cingulate cortex, has a role in dysfunctional serotonergic neurotransmission, associated with impulsive aggression in BPD patients. Some results have showed a reduction in the volumes of the hippocampal and amygdala in patients. The amygdala has a role in emotional regulation. The neuroimaging findings also indicated a weakening of prefrontal inhibitory control could contribute to amygdala hyperactivity. A reduction in the frontal and orbitofrontal lobe volumes and N-acetyl-aspartate has also been reported. However, whether the observed neurobiological dysfunctions are pre-existing or the result of the BPD is …show more content…

The 97% of patients associated with this disorder, with either attempted or completed suicide, makes psychosocial interventions mandatory for severe cases, even when concomitant pharmacotherapy is applied. DBT has been shown to be more effective and successful than most other resources by helping to teach the patient how to learn to: take control of their lives, emotions, and themselves through self-knowledge, emotion regulation, and cognitive restructuring. Pharmacotherapy, or the use of medication, has also been administrated to help reduce depression, anxiety, and impulsive aggression that are present in patients with antidepressants or mood stabilizers. It gives the patients a chance to stop medication after they have learned to manage themselves. In a placebo-controlled trial, the drug called olanzapine was superior in the treatment of all four subcategories of borderline psychopathology. The efficacy of SSRIs on rapid mood shifts, anger, depression, and anxiety have been put through placebo based trials as well. There have been mixed studies of these drugs have reported mixed results for patients with a comorbid bipolar disorder and impulsive aggression of personality disorders. There was some difficulty for some of these studies because of the high dropout rate of patients that had a hard time staying on medication for a sustained period of

Get Access