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Borderline Personality Disorder

Most personality disorders are thought to originate early in development and borderline personality disorder is no exception. Review articles on neuropsychological and behavioural risk factors associated with borderline personality disorder in children, and propose a basic prevention program that might help reduce the risk for developing borderline personality disorder.

Borderline Personality Disorder, (BPD) as the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology defines it as a “personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of impulsivity and unstable personal relationships, self-image, and affect,… recurrent suicidal or self-mutilating gestures or behaviour; emotional instability; chronic feelings of emptiness, intense and inappropriate anger;… and transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or dissociation” (Colman, 2003, p. 99). In describing the psychopathology of BPD and its derivation in developmental childhood, this essay will endeavour to draw together research findings from various empirical studies in both neuro- and bio-psychological as well as associated behavioural risk aspects to arrive at a means of treatment and hopefully subsequent prevention in aiding the demise of future psychiatric episodes for maturing patients leading up to this disorder. The essay also takes a closer look at family structures in the upbringing of children, including parental behaviour and prevailing medical/mental conditions which may favour the disorder in their offspring, the resulting impact on a child’s cognitive, emotional and physical coping mechanisms due to possible abuse and ensuing trauma, and viable treatment such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Dialectic Behavioural Therapy, combined with supervised medication to stabilise and possibly counteract psychotic disorders before they establish. Regarding these important factors the essay will touch on domestic violence resulting in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as well as other overlapping or affiliating...