Problems Assessing and Diagnosing 16-20 Year Old with Borderline Personality Disorder

Contents

1) Introduction………………………………………………………………………...3

2) Borderline Personality Disorder………………………………………………...3

3) Problems with Assessing Borderline Personality Disorder in Adolescents…………………………………………………………………………4

-Proffesional Bias

-Overlapping Symptoms

-Developmental Stage

4) Problems with Diagnosis…………………………………………………………6

-‘Normality’ of features

-Effects of Labelling

-co morbidity

-low persistence

-lack of research

5) Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….9

6) References…………………………………………………………….…………..11

1. Introduction

When assessing or diagnosing people with patterns of impulsivity, instability in interpersonal relationship, self image and effect a clinician is faced with a number of challenges. These challenges are further amplified when it comes to assessing or diagnosing adolescents between the ages of sixteen and twenty as the lines of normal and abnormal become somewhat even more blurred. This essay will first discuss borderline personality disorder, and with the help of the DSM IV give an outline as to what it is exactly. Although the DSM IV proves an extremely necessary tool when it comes to assessing and diagnosing in psychology, one needs to remain aware of its possible insensitivity when it comes to context, in this case age. After outlining borderline personality in adolescents this essay will focus on the problems with assessing them and then the wider array of challenges that one encounters when diagnosing such adolescents.

2. Borderline Personality Disorder

Personality disorders are not easy to assess and diagnose (Davis, 1987) There has always been a sense of mystery surrounding borderline personality disorder in particular. It is a complex and often misunderstood disorder which is tricky to assess and diagnose at the best of times (Hoffman, 2007). When one adds the context of age to the equation this process becomes even more complex. The effect which borderline personality disorder can have on...