BACKGROUND Patients with borderline personality disorder often are found and treated in psychiatric settings following episodes of self-mutilation, such as wrist-slashing. Family physicians care for many patients with borderline personality disorder, but in primary care settings wrist-slashing or other physical mutilation is a less common presenting problem. Frequently these patients complain o...

Affective instability and self-injurious behavior are important features of Borderline Personality Disorder. Whereas affective instability may be caused by a pattern of limbic hyperreactivity paired with dysfunctional prefrontal regulation mechanisms, painful stimulation was found to reduce affective arousal at the neural level, possibly underlying the soothing effect of pain in BPD.We used psy...

OBJECTIVE To describe the concept of mentalization, and its application in understanding the development of psychopathology in patients with borderline personality disorder; to give an account of the main features of mentalization-based treatment; to summarise the evidence supporting its effectiveness. DISCUSSION Mentalization is a predominantly preconscious mental activity that enables the i...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article is to describe the development of the borderline personality disorder diagnosis, highlighting both the obstacles encountered and the associated achievements. METHOD On the basis of a review of the literature, the author provides a chronological account of the borderline construct in psychiatry, summarizing progress in decade-long intervals. RESULTS Bord...

The term “ borderline” first appeared in psychoanalytic literature earlier this century. It tended to refer to patients who were neither completely neurotic or psychotic but were still very disturbed (Goldstein, 1995). This term has evolved and presently “ borderline” generally refers to a severely disturbed personality (Ryle, 1997). The core features of the Borderline Personality Disorder are ...

OBJECTIVE The authors sought to evaluate the clinical efficacy of dialectical behavior therapy compared with general psychiatric management, including a combination of psychodynamically informed therapy and symptom-targeted medication management derived from specific recommendations in APA guidelines for borderline personality disorder. METHOD This was a single-blind trial in which 180 patien...

In this paper, we outline the concept of integrative therapy of borderline personality, also referred to as fragmented personality, which we consider to be the core psychopathology underlying all clinical subtypes of personality disorder. Hence, the terms borderline personality, borderline disorder, fragmented personality, and personality disorder are used interchangeably, as synonyms. Our inte...