Borderline Personality Disorder Related Content

Longitudinal research into borderline personality disorder (BPD) has revealed a paradox: symptomatic remission is common, but doesn’t uniformly translate into improved psychosocial functioning. Psychosocial functioning is the ability to work, build, or maintain a supportive social network, or...

It is well established that dissociative experiences are commonly reported by adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and differentiate them from adults with other psychiatric disorders. In contrast, dissociation in adolescents with BPD has not been well studied. Researchers at McLean...

The following story features Brandon , a NFL wide receiver, co-founder of PROJECT 375, and participant in our Deconstructing Stigma: A Change in Thought Can Change a Life mental health public awareness campaign. Told through the eyes of its participants, this campaign boldly challenges the...

The following story features Meghan, a 27-year-old nanny in Massachusetts and participant in our Deconstructing Stigma: A Change in Thought Can Change a Life mental health public awareness campaign. Learn more at DeconstructingStigma.org . A trip to the local market could send Meg into a severe...

Sue Callori needs only to glance at her arms to remember the tools she uses when the going gets tough. On her right arm her tattoos read: “Challenge your thoughts,” “Radical acceptance,” and “Distraction,” and on her left: “This too shall pass.” The writings remind her of what she learned during her...

When he was still a graduate student in the 1970s, Michael Hollander’s first patient was an adolescent who was in a great deal of emotional pain. “She was suicidal, self-injurious, and probably would have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder had we been able to do that in those days...

It was 1979, and Michael Hollander, PhD, was a post-doctoral fellow at McLean’s adolescent day service when he overheard two girls talking about how they regularly burned their arms with lighters and red-hot coins. He was curious and joined the conversation. “What surprised me was that they didn’t...

On May 19, NAMI Westside Los Angeles presented its 2019 Distinguished Service award to Blaise Aguirre, MD . He was honored at the group’s Annual Gala , held at the home of philanthropist and mental health advocate Stanley Black. Aguirre is the founding medical director of McLean’s 3East continuum...

As a young psychiatrist, John G. Gunderson, MD, was fascinated by certain patients that he, and even his more experienced colleagues, struggled to diagnose and treat. They were challenging and sometimes erratic. They would cut or burn themselves. Often, they would grasp on to one person as their...

Alexandra Yogman, LICSW, recalls the first time she talked alone with a patient with borderline personality disorder (BPD). It was 2015, and as part of her social work master’s degree program, she was interning on McLean’s Short Term Unit. She had spent several months shadowing experienced...

John G. Gunderson, MD, a pioneer in the diagnosis, treatment, and research of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital, died at home on January 11, 2019, while surrounded by his family. The cause was prostate cancer. Dr...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a complex mental illness characterized by emotional hypersensitivity and unstable behaviors that is often misdiagnosed. Some clinicians avoid patients with BPD, believing they are difficult to work with and have poor outcomes. And the most effective evidence...

Martin Bohus, MD, an internationally recognized leader in the study and treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), recently presented clinical training sessions, a webinar, and a lecture at McLean Hospital. Through the clinical training sessions...

According to Mary C. Zanarini, EdD , director of the Laboratory for the Study of Adult Development at McLean Hospital, “Research has proven that borderline personality disorder is a valid psychiatric disorder and not a catch-all category for challenging patients with different clinical presentations...

The Borderline Personality Disorder Training Institute (BPDTI) at McLean Hospital provides instruction on the four major evidence-based treatments for borderline personality disorder (BPD)—dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), general psychiatric management (GPM), mentalization-based treatment (MBT)...

The quest for information, resources, and support is a nearly universal need for families dealing with mental illness. One family, whose relative was treated for borderline personality disorder (BPD) at McLean, wanted to address that need and the family suggested that McLean leverage its...

Every Monday at 9am, 3East leadership holds a unique two-hour session that is part support group, part tutorial. The participants, who join in person or by conference call, are learning the ins and outs of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). Each is a parent of a child who is—or has been—part of the...

Thanks to an anonymous gift, McLean Hospital launched the Borderline Personality Disorder Patient and Family Education Initiative in 2015, providing interactive and on-demand resources to support individuals and families affected by borderline personality disorder (BPD). “A family who desired...

For a young woman suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD), waiting weeks or months for treatment can be devastating. People with the disorder often harm themselves and are sometimes suicidal, so the scarcity of therapists trained in one of the gold standard treatments—dialectical...

In September 2013, McLean launched the Division of Women’s Mental Health with Shelly F. Greenfield, MD, MPH , as its chief. We recently sat down with Dr. Greenfield to talk about the division’s roots, goals, and projects. Horizons: What was the genesis of the Division of Women’s Mental Health? Dr...