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Article in Time about the DSM
Here’s an article about the DSM… Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2009 Redefining Crazy: Researchers Revise the DSM By John Cloud If you wanted to make a list of important books you should read, what would you choose? Anna Karenina, maybe? The Bible? How about the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders? It may not be at the top of your list, but the DSM, as it’s usually called, is one of the most important books in the world. It attempts to categorize, describe and give a code number to literally every problem that can occur in your mind, from schizophrenia to borderline personality disorder to something called mathematics disorder, which…
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BPD more prevelant than previously thought?
When I was reading the Time article on BPD – which is cited below and provides a nice new overview of BPD – I was struck by this quotation: A 2008 study of nearly 35,000 adults in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that 5.9%–which would translate into 18 million Americans–had been given a BPD diagnosis. As recently as 2000, the American Psychiatric Association believed that only 2% had BPD. (In contrast, clinicians diagnose bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in about 1% of the population.) BPD has long been regarded as an illness disproportionately affecting women, but the latest research shows no difference in prevalence rates for men and women. Regardless…
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Experts Argue that BPD should be an Axis I disorder
A short article from About.com regarding an Article in Biological Psychiatry about moving BPD to Axis I: Experts Argue That Borderline Personality Disorder Should Be Shifted to Axis I Thursday October 16, 2008 In a recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry, Dr. Antonia New and her colleagues at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Bronx VA Medical Center argue the case for shifting borderline personality disorder (BPD) from Axis I to Axis II of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).In the most current, fourth edition of the DSM, BPD is diagnosed on Axis II, which is reserved for “longstanding disorders,” such as personality disorders. In their…
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A New Name for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)?
There has been numerous articles and discussion in the therapeutic community about renaming BPD. Here is the text of an interview with Dr. Leland Heller about a new name and about his feelings about the current Borderline Personality Disorder Name (the emphasis in this article is mine): A POSSIBLE NEW NAME FOR BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER Many people would like to change the terminology of the “borderline personality disorder” to a new term that more accurately describes the illness. The term “BPD” in and of itself is as if the whole person (and the personality) is flawed, rather than looking at the BPD as a medical problem it actually is. The…
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The DSM-IV and Bon’s view of BPD/ERD – What’s required?
One of my commenters pointed out that the DSM-IV allows (because of the 5 of 9) for 256 different configurations of BPD. I can’t help but feel that perhaps if there are 256 configurations of a disorder, we are talking about a very non-specific diagnosis here. Perhaps we’re talking about several different diagnoses. I don’t really know. I try and address the idea of ERD (although I call it BPD throughout my book because that is the diagnosis that is recognized) in my book, with the core features being emotional dysregulation, impulsiveness and shame. I don’t think all 256 configurations would include all of those – but IMO (and I…
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DSM-IV Criteria
Although this site is not an introduction to Borderline Personality Disorder, and I am not a doctor or therapist, I thought it might be helpful to look at the DSM-IV diagnosis criteria. If you have 5 of these 9, you are considered a borderline: A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following: 1. frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5. 2. a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by…