Management of adults with borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Objectives The primary objective of this review is to identify the best research based evidence on interventions for the management of adults with borderline personality disorder prevention of self harm (including suicide). Criteria for considering studies for this review Types of participants Adults (16 years of age or above) with a diagnosis Borderline Personality Disorder in any clinical or community (primary) based setting will be included. Participants experiencing current psychotic episodes, or with a major psychosis such as schizophrenia will be included but may be reported as a subgroup in the results if required. Types of interventions All treatments and interventions will be considered, including behavioural therapies, supervised self harm therapies, gender specific therapies, directed behaviour therapy and pharmacological therapies. Pharmacological interventions will include administration of serotonergic, neuroleptic, anti-convulsant, MAOI’s and related agents. Types of outcome measures Studies that examine the frequency of mortality, rates of self harm, frequency of suicide attempts, service utilisation - including rates of hospitalisation and re-admission will be included for analysis. Where possible, rates of presentation will be included to capture total service utilisation rates. Measures of severity and frequency of aggressive behaviour will also be included. Self reported, subjective measures of depression, anxiety, social adjustment will be included in a narrative summary.