Identifying and Diagnosing Borderline Personality Disorder

Discuss the problems related with identifying and diagnosing Borderline Personality Disorder.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Borderline Personality Disorder Classification: What is it?

Problems related to identifying and diagnosing Borderline Personality Disorder

Conclusion

References

BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER (301.83)

INTRODUCTION

Borderline Personality Disorder forms part of the category of the 9 Personality Disorders and lies within the cluster of the “dramatic, emotional or erratic” (Barlow & Durand, p.465) characteristic. It was added to the DSM-III classification system in 1980 on Axis II and patients were described as showing “social contrariness and as consistently using others for one’s own ends”(Oldham, 2009; DSM-III, p.322). Borderline personality disorder is one of the most common personality disorders and yet it is one of the more commonly misunderstood disorders with some clinicians claiming that it could be explained by other conditions such as mood or impulse control disorders (Goodman, 2009). The prevalence of this disorder is in the range of about 2% of the population.

WHAT IS IT?

The DSM-IV-TR classification system claims “the essential feature of Borderline Personality Disorder is a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity that begins in early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts” (APA, 706).

According to the DSM-III-TR (APA, 710) the diagnostic criteria for Borderline personality disorder are:

-------------------------------------------------

(1) frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment

-------------------------------------------------

(2) a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation

-------------------------------------------------

(3) identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self...