Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder in Emergency Departments.
Publication/Presentation Date
1-1-2017
Abstract
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients, when in crisis, are frequent visitors of emergency departments (EDs). When these patients exhibit symptoms such as aggressiveness, impulsivity, intense anxiety, severe depression, self-harm, and suicidal attempts or gestures, diagnosis, and treatment of the BPD becomes challenging for ED doctors. This review will, therefore, outline advice to physicians and health-care providers who face this challenging patient population in the EDs. Crisis intervention should be the first objective of clinicians when dealing with BPD in the emergency. For the patients with agitation, symptom-specific pharmacotherapy is usually recommended, while for non-agitated patients, short but intensive psychotherapy especially dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has a positive effect. Although various psychotherapies, either alone or integrated, are preferred modes of treatment for this group of patients, the effects of psychotherapies on BPD outcomes are small to medium. Proper risk management along with developing a positive attitude and empathy toward these patients will help them in normalizing in an emergency setting after which treatment course can be decided.
Volume
8
First Page
136
Last Page
136
ISSN
1664-0640
Published In/Presented At
Shaikh, U., Qamar, I., Jafry, F., Hassan, M., Shagufta, S., Odhejo, Y. I., & Ahmed, S. (2017). Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder in Emergency Departments. Frontiers in psychiatry, 8, 136. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00136
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences | Psychiatry
PubMedID
28824467
Department(s)
Department of Psychiatry
Document Type
Article