Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:16:14.535Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

To diagnose or not to diagnose your BPD patient

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

L. De Picker*
Affiliation:
Sinaps, University Psychiatric Hospital Campus Duffel, Duffel, Belgium

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Clinicians working in every field of psychiatry will likely encounter patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) on a regular basis. Nevertheless, diagnostic assessment and disclosure in patients suspected to suffer from BPD can be difficult and even uncomfortable to many clinicians. In a survey among psychiatrists, 57% indicated they had failed to disclose a diagnosis of BPD at some point in their careers, citing diagnostic uncertainty and concerns about stigma as key issues.1This workshop will engage the audience in an intensive discussion of when and how to disclose a suspected diagnosis of BPD to a patient, and how to involve the patient in the diagnostic process. Dr. De Picker will demonstrate how BPD diagnostic disclosure can become a key intervention in every psychiatric setting by using a two-step process. The first step involves a review of the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria together with the patient. This is always followed by a narrative explanation using either the interpersonal hypersensitivity model or emotional vulnerability model as trait factor. With these two steps, diagnostic disclosure creates both an important validating experience for the patient and a not to be missed opportunity for psycho-education about the heritability, prognosis and treatability of borderline personality disorder which installs hope, trust and confidence. References: 1. Sisti D, Segal AG, Siegel AM, Johnson R, Gunderson J. Diagnosing, disclosing, and documenting borderline personality disorder: a survey of psychiatrists’ practices. J Pers Disord 2016; 30: 848–56.

Disclosure

Dr. De Picker reports grants from University Psychiatric Centre Duffel, Johnson & Johnson Belgium and Boehringer-Ingelheim, outside the submitted work.

Type
Abstract
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.