Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has suffered from underdiagnosis, in part because not enough clinicians know how to handle patients with BPD. "They don't have the tools to know how to manage these situations effectively," Lois W. Choi-Kain, MEd, MD, director of the Gunderson Personality Disorders Institute, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass., said in an interview.
As a result, the clinician avoids the BPD patient, who feels demeaned and never finds the capacity to get better.
Psychiatry training in residency tends to emphasize biomedical treatments and does not focus enough on learning psychotherapy and other psychosocial treatments, according to Eric M. Plakun, MD, DLFAPA, FACPsych, medical director/CEO of the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Mass.
"This is where I see the need for a greater psychotherapy teaching focus in residency, along with teaching of general principles for working with patients with BPD," said Plakun.
In his last phase of his career, BPD pioneer John G. Gunderson, MD, worked with Choi-Kain to train clinicians on general psychiatric management (GPM), which employs a sensitive, nonattacking approach to diffuse and calm situations with BPD patients.
As interest grows in combining GPM with manual treatments, GPM alone offers a more accessible approach for therapist and patient, said Choi-Kain, who has been trying to promote its use and do research on its techniques.
"It's trying to boil it down to make it simple," she said. As much as evidence-based, manualized approaches have advanced the field, they're just not that widely available, she said.
Orchestrating treatments such as dialectical behavior therapy and mentalization-based therapy takes a lot of specialization, noted Choi-Kain. "And because of the amount of work that it involves for both the clinician and the patient, it decreases the capacity that clinicians and systems have to offer treatment to a wider number of patients."
Learning a manualized treatment for BPD is asking a lot from residents, agreed Plakun. "Those who want more immersion in treating these patients can pursue further training in residency electives, in postresidency graduate medical education programs or through psychoanalytic training."
This article originally appeared on MDedge.com, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
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Cite this: Residency Programs Need 'Greater Focus' on BPD Treatment - Medscape - Sep 21, 2021.
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