scholarly journals Individual Factors Underlying Suicidal Behaviors in Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder: A Qualitative Study

2022 ◽  
Vol In Press (In Press) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjan Hajfiroozabadi ◽  
Jamileh Mohtashami ◽  
Foroozan Atashzadeh-Shoorideh

Background: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with a high risk of suicide. Limited information is available on the individual factors underlying suicidal behaviors, especially suicide attempts (SAs), in Iranian patients with BPD. Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the individual factors underlying suicidal behaviors in patients with BPD. Methods: This was a qualitative descriptive study that was conducted from May 2020 to February 2021 in Tehran and Karaj, Iran, on 23 participants, including 14 patients with BPD and seven mental health professionals, as well as two members of their families. The research environment included psychiatric inpatient wards, psychiatric emergencies, and psychiatric clinics. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using conventional content analysis. Results: Data analysis revealed five main themes and 15 sub-themes related to the individual factors underlying the identification and prediction of the risk for suicidal behaviors and SAs. The extracted themes included “psychological pain and loneliness”, “defects in the distinction and integration of emotions”, “unconventional behavior and emotion”, “pervasive incompatibility”, and “breakdown of the self-integrity”. Conclusions: The BPD is a complex and challenging disorder in which patients with BPD usually tend to engage in suicidal behaviors, and with the emergence of individual factors underlying the occurrence of such behaviors, appropriate preventive measures and interventions can be taken to reduce suicide-related behaviors such as suicidal thoughts and planning, as well as SAs.

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Tience Debora Valentina ◽  
Carla R Marchira ◽  
Tina Afiatin ◽  
Noor R Hadjam

Male adolescents of sexual minority groups often present mental health problems and suicidal behaviors. This qualitative study was conducted to explore how a bisexual youth with borderline personality disorder and multiple suicide attempts coped with his intention to die. Analysis was done using the Grounded Theory approach resulted in several themes. First, the pathway to suicidal behaviors; depicting the conflict between parents and the history of mother’s suicide attempts made him felt disconnected with the family. Second, the feeling of not deserving loved although having the need to be loved and to love. Third, the ambivalence of his sexual orientations as he had strong desire to be with a man yet felt happy dating a girl. Fourth, the interpretation of religious values for preventing fatal suicidal act. He perceived that his suicide attempts failed because God wants him to stay alive. The discussion addresses the aspect of religiosity that obstructs suicidal behaviors in bisexual youths


2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Eizirik ◽  
Peter Fonagy

OBJECTIVE: To describe the concept of mentalization, and its application in understanding the development of psychopathology in patients with borderline personality disorder; to give an account of the main features of mentalization-based treatment; to summarise the evidence supporting its effectiveness. DISCUSSION: Mentalization is a predominantly preconscious mental activity that enables the individual to understand him/herself and others in terms of subjective states and mental processes. Psychological trauma in childhood is associated with deficits in mentalization and with the development of borderline personality disorder. Mentalization-based treatment is a psychodynamically-oriented manualized psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder that aims to develop a therapeutic process in which the patient's capacity for mentalization becomes the focus of treatment. Randomized controlled trials have demonstrated the effectiveness of this treatment for patients with borderline personality disorder. CONCLUSIONS: The development of a psychodynamically-oriented therapeutic intervention that specifically targets the deficits involved in the psychopathology of borderline personality disorder is a crucial step in increasing the effectiveness of treatment. Mental health professionals should be adequately prepared to deliver effective interventions to their patients, such as mentalization-based treatment.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Allen ◽  
Michael Hallquist ◽  
Aidan G.C. Wright ◽  
Alexandre Dombrovski

Importance: Clinicians treating borderline personality disorder (BPD) are often faced with the difficult challenge of assessing when, and for whom, risk for suicide is greatest. Addressing this dilemma requires longitudinal, prospective data from high-risk samples with an elevated base rate of suicide attempts.Objective: To test whether dispositional characteristics modulate the pathway from interpersonal dysfunction to suicide in BPD. Design: This longitudinal, observational study was conducted between 1990 and 2020. Data were analyzed between April and July 2020. Participants were assessed annually for up to 30 years (mean number of follow-ups = 7.82). Setting: Participants were recruited from inpatient, outpatient, and community referral sources.Participants: 458 individuals (Mean age = 28.59, 77% female) diagnosed with BPD.Main Outcomes and Measures: Presence or absence of a suicide attempt within one year of each follow-up assessment. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to 1) examine longitudinal, within-person transitions from interpersonal dysfunction to suicidal ideation to suicide attempts (i.e., the [I]nterpersonal-[I]deation-[A]ttempt pathway); and 2) evaluate whether two maladaptive personality dimensions, negative affect and disinhibition, moderated these transitions.Results: At the within-person level, there was support for the I-I-A pathway: suicidal ideation accounted for the association between interpersonal dysfunction and suicide attempts. Personality further moderated each component of the I-I-A pathway: negative affect was associated with a stronger coupling between interpersonal dysfunction and ideation; and disinhibition was associated with a stronger coupling between ideation and attempts. Conclusions and Relevance: The escalation from interpersonal difficulties to a suicidal crisis in BPD involves two psychologically distinct process. An internalizing process links interpersonal dysfunction to suicidal ideation and is facilitated by trait negative. An additional externalizing process links suicidal ideation to suicide attempts, and is facilitated by trait disinhibition. Assessment of these intra- and interindividual risk factors may inform clinical decisions about when, and for whom, crisis intervention is necessary.


Author(s):  
Shaunak Ajit Ajinkya ◽  
Pranita Shantanu Sharma ◽  
Aparna Ramakrishnan

Introduction: Personality disorders are a group of behavioural patterns associated with significant personal and socio-occupational disturbances. Numerous studies have demonstrated borderline personality to be one of the most common personality disorders. It’s less often diagnosed with just a clinical assessment. Aim: To examine the proportion of patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and its associated personality types and clinical syndromes, using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory version-III (MCMI-III). Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational study was carried out on 450 adult patients who attended the psychiatry outpatient department of an urban tertiary care hospital. They had been administered the MCMI-III, a self-rating questionnaire commonly used to provide information on personality types and associated clinical syndromes. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS, Windows) version 20.0 was used for statistical analyses. Data was expressed in terms of actual number, mean and percentages. Chi-Square or Fisher’s-exact test, as appropriate, was used for categorical data to test for associations. Odds ratio was estimated to measure strength of the association. Results: Borderline was the most common personality type comprising nearly half (46.63%) of the study population. 25.5% had borderline traits while 21.1% had Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). BPD was significantly higher in females (p<0.001), younger age group below the age of 40 years (p<0.001) and unmarried persons (p<0.001). It was comorbid most with Anxiety (90.91%; OR=4.05; p<0.001), Major Depression (85.23%; OR=18.39; p<0.001), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (46.59%; OR=6.30; p<0.001) and Thought disorders (56.82%; OR=18.15; p<0.001). Alcohol (22.73%; OR=3.54; p<0.001) and Drug dependence (13.64%; OR=11.52; p<0.001) were also seen significantly higher in patients with BPD. Personality types significantly comorbid with BPD were Sadistic, Depressive, Masochistic, Negativistic, Schizotypal, Avoidant, Dependent, Antisocial and Paranoid types, with odds being most for Sadistic personality (OR=9.44). Conclusion: It is recommended that mental health professionals and clinicians should start to look for underlying symptoms of BPD in patients of anxiety and mood syndromes. If found these patients should be directed for psychotherapy as early as possible. The MCMI psychological test would be an important contribution to this area, given the need for systematic, quick, and objective testing methods that facilitate the diagnosis.


BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S122-S122
Author(s):  
Nyakomi Adwok ◽  
Sharon Nightingale

AimsThe overarching aim of the session was to address and reduce stigma around Borderline Personality Disorder among doctors. The three main objectives were:To increase empathy and understanding around Borderline Personality Disorder by exposing junior doctors to service user perspectives outside a clinical setting;To address knowledge gaps identified by junior doctors in a self-reported questionnaire disseminated prior to the teaching session;To offer junior doctors a basic psychological framework to base their assessment and formulation of service users with personality disorders.Background‘Borderline Personality Disorder: The Person Behind the Label’ was the title of the first co-produced teaching session in the Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust (LYPFT). Prior to the teaching session, an online questionnaire was sent out to trainees. The results highlighted three key issues:Negative attitudes towards service users with personality disorders;Poor subjective knowledge of the psychological models of personality disorders;Perception among trainees that they do not receive adequate training to deal with the challenges service users with personality disorders present.MethodA teaching session was co-produced by a team of two service users, a principal clinical psychologist within the Leeds Personality Disorder Network (PDN) and a core Psychiatry trainee. It was delivered in a 75 minute session to 40 attendees consisting of both trainee doctors and consultants.ResultFeedback was collected immediately after the session through the use of anonymous feedback forms. The response to the training was overwhelmingly positive with all 28 respondents rating the session as 4/5 or 5/5 on a satisfaction scale ranging from 1 (poor) to excellent (5). Key themes from the feedback included appreciation for the service user perspective and teaching on psychological theory. The fourth question in the questionnaire: “How will this teaching impact your work?” produced the highest number of responses (25/28) and provided evidence that the above listed objectives of the session were met.ConclusionCo-produced teaching has great potential to address negative attitudes around highly stigmatised conditions by bridging the gap that often exists between service users and mental health professionals.


2017 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 53-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.I. Aaltonen ◽  
T. Rosenström ◽  
I. Baryshnikov ◽  
B. Karpov ◽  
T. Melartin ◽  
...  

AbstractBackground:Substantial evidence supports an association between childhood maltreatment and suicidal behaviour. However, few studies have examined factors mediating this relationship among patients with unipolar or bipolar mood disorders.Methods:Depressive disorder and bipolar disorder (ICD-10-DCR) patients (n = 287) from the Helsinki University Psychiatric Consortium (HUPC) Study were surveyed on self-reported childhood experiences, current depressive symptoms, borderline personality disorder traits, and lifetime suicidal behaviour. Psychiatric records served to complement the information on suicide attempts. We examined by formal mediation analyses whether (1) the effect of childhood maltreatment on suicidal behaviour is mediated through borderline personality disorder traits and (2) the mediation effect differs between lifetime suicidal ideation and lifetime suicide attempts.Results:The impact of childhood maltreatment in multivariate models on either lifetime suicidal ideation or lifetime suicide attempts showed comparable total effects. In formal mediation analyses, borderline personality disorder traits mediated all of the total effect of childhood maltreatment on lifetime suicide attempts, but only one fifth of the total effect on lifetime suicidal ideation. The mediation effect was stronger for lifetime suicide attempts than for lifetime suicidal ideation (P = 0.002) and independent of current depressive symptoms.Conclusions:The mechanisms of the effect of childhood maltreatment on suicidal ideation versus suicide attempts may diverge among psychiatric patients with mood disorders. Borderline personality disorder traits may contribute to these mechanisms, although the influence appears considerably stronger for suicide attempts than for suicidal ideation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Buerger ◽  
Gloria Fischer-Waldschmidt ◽  
Florian Hammerle ◽  
Kristin von Auer ◽  
Peter Parzer ◽  
...  

Despite the expansion of treatment options for adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD), research on treatment options for adolescent BPD is scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of dialectical behavior therapy for adolescents (DBT-A) on the individual trait level as primary outcome; and the frequency of suicide attempts and nonsuicidal self-injury, self-reported BPD core pathology, and general psychopathology as secondary outcomes. Seventy-two adolescents (aged 12–17 years) with full- or subsyndromal BPD were treated with DBT-A (25 single sessions, 20 sessions of skills training), and 13 patients (18.1%) withdrew during treatment. From baseline to post-treatment, the number of BPD traits decreased significantly (p ≤ .001). All secondary outcomes decreased significantly as well (p ≤ .001). Results of this uncontrolled study suggest that beside self-harm, DBT-A may also have a beneficial impact on other features of BPD.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Zimmerman ◽  
Jennifer Martinez ◽  
Diane Young ◽  
Iwona Chelminski ◽  
Theresa A. Morgan ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yogev Kivity ◽  
Kenneth N. Levy ◽  
Stéphane Kolly ◽  
Ueli Kramer

The authors examined whether alliance dynamics are affected by tailoring the therapeutic relationship to the individual patient in brief psychotherapy of borderline personality disorder. Sixty patients were randomized to 10-session Good Psychiatric Management (GPM-BV) or GPM combined with Motive-Oriented Therapeutic Relationship techniques (MOTR+GPM-BV). Patient- and therapist-rated alliance was assessed weekly. Self-reported symptomatic distress was assessed pre-, mid-, and posttreatment. In MOTR+GPM-BV, stronger therapist-rated alliance predicted lower symptomatic distress in the same timepoint, but not in a lag, whereas symptomatic distress predicted therapist-rated alliance in a lag. Therapist-rated alliance was lower than patient-rated alliance in GPM-BV but not in MOTR+GPM-BV. In MOTR+GPM-BV, higher agreement on strong alliance tended to predict lower symptomatic distress. Patient- and therapist-rated alliances were temporally congruent, but congruence did not predict outcome. Addressing the relationship needs of patients may partly exert its salutary effect by increasing agreement between patients' and therapists' experience of the alliance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Wong ◽  
Anees Bahji ◽  
Sarosh Khalid-Khan

Background: Evidence regarding the efficacy of psychotherapy in adolescents with borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptomatology has not been previously synthesized. Objective: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in order to assess the efficacy of psychotherapies in adolescents with BPD symptomatology. Methods: Seven electronic databases were systematically searched using the search terms BPD, adolescent, and psychotherapy from database inception to July 2019. Titles/abstracts and full-texts were screened by one reviewer; discrepancies were resolved via consensus. We extracted data on BPD symptomatology, including BPD symptoms, suicide attempts, nonsuicidal self-injury, general psychopathology, functional recovery, and treatment retention. Data were pooled using random-effects models. Results: Of 536 papers, seven trials (643 participants) were eligible. Psychotherapy led to significant short-term improvements in BPD symptomatology posttreatment ( g = −0.89 [−1.75, −0.02]) but not in follow-up ( g = 0.06 [−0.26, 0.39]). There was no significant difference in treatment retention between the experimental and control groups overall (odds ratio [ OR] 1.02, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.92 to 1.12, I 2 = 52%). Psychotherapy reduced the frequency of nonsuicidal self-injury ( OR = 0.34, 95% CI, 0.16 to 0.74) but not suicide attempts ( OR = 1.03, 95% CI, 0.46 to 2.30). Conclusions: There is a growing variety of psychotherapeutic interventions for adolescents with BPD symptomatology that appears feasible and effective in the short term, but efficacy is not retained in follow-up—particularly for frequency of suicide attempts.


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