An Overview of Borderline Personality Disorder: Symptoms and Prognosis

This report provides an overview of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), a mental health condition characterized by unstable emotions, distorted self-image, and impulsive behaviors. The report details the common symptoms of BPD, including extreme emotional reactions, feelings of emptiness, and a history of unstable relationships. It also discusses treatment options, such as psychiatric medications like antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and anti-anxiety medications, while highlighting the importance of involving a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals. Furthermore, the report references long-term studies on BPD prognosis, like the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorder Study and the McLean Study of Adult Development, and includes a graph illustrating the typical ten-year course of the disorder. Desklib offers this report and many other resources for students.

Running Head: Borderline Personality Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder
This is a personality disorder in which there is change in the pattern of feelings and
behaviours which are normal according to the person doing this but such emotions can cause
great issues in that person’s life in reality. The normal symptoms of BPD consist of: Extreme
emotions, high impulsive reactions etc (Fovet, Geoffroy, Vaiva, & Amad, 2015).
The symptoms of the BPD are:
This disorder actually differs from person to person and women generally fall sick with such
type of disorders more than the men. Very common symptoms of this disorder are:
The person seems to have unstable self-image or in other words distorted sense of self. The
person feels isolated, bored and feels that his life is empty. The responses like empathy
become less. That person might have had a bad history of relationships like intense love or
intense hate. Person might feel that he is rejected or abandoned by the world and hence,
extreme reactions can be shown by the person. Strong anxiety or worry would persist. The
person’s moods might change from time to time. It might change in a minute or in hours.
Nothing is stable (Association, 2013). Usage of drug and alcohol might increase including
self-destructive actions. The person might not have any goal in life.
The treatment of the person actually depends on the type of personality disorder a person
has. For example: If the person has schizophrenia then there would be a different type of
treatment. But in general terms if talked about, the doctor may include primary care provider
and some more people like Psychiatrist, psychologist, pharmacist and social worker.
If the symptoms are mild that can be controlled, then one might need treatment from the
primary doctor only with the psychiatrist. Or else the mental professionals will treat the
person with experience in treating such disorders (Gupta, Verma, & Shriniwas, 2008).
As far as the medications are concerned, there as such are no medications approved by the
Food and Drug administration for treating such disorders. But, some types of medications
which are psychiatric might help with such disorder symptoms.
Anti depressants. These might be helpful in case if the person is depressed, moody, angry,
irritated, hopeless etc.
Mood stabilizers. As the name suggests, these will stabilize the mood swings and reduce the
irritability and anger.
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Borderline Personality Disorder
Antipsychotic medications. These are also known as neuroleptics and these are supportive
when the symptoms consist of losing touch with the reality or if person has anxiety or anger
issues.
Anti-anxiety medications. These are helpful when the person is anxious or showing any
kind of destructive behaviour and also impulsion.
In the recent few years, there have been major researches conducted on the prognosis of the
bipolar disorder which are long term studies. Their names are Collaborative Longitudinal
Personality Disorder study and Mclean Study of the Adult Development. These are the kind
of studies which evaluates the course of BPD in Populations of persons looking for treatment
of such disorders (Leahy, 2007).
Ten Year Course of BPD
Source: (Google Images, 2018)
In the above Graph, there is a 10 year course of Borderline Personality Disorder shown.
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Borderline Personality Disorder
References
Association, A. P. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5 ed.).
American Psychiatric Pub.
Fovet, T., Geoffroy, P. A., Vaiva, G., & Amad, A. (2015). Individuals With Bipolar Disorder
and Their Relationship With the Criminal Justice System: A Critical Review.
Psychiatric Services, 66(4).
Association, A. P. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5 ed.).
American Psychiatric Pub.
Gupta, L. N., Verma, K. K., & Shriniwas. (2008). Outcome of Bipolar I (mania) disorders, In
Relation with Personality Profile. Delhi Psychaitry Journal, 11(1).
Leahy, R. L. (2007). Bipolar Disorder: Causes, Contexts, and Treatments. Journal Of
Clinical Psychology, 63(5), 417-424.
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