I’ve become rather interested in the question of whether or not traits of Borderline Personality Disorder can lessen, or even vanish, with time and other factors such as: chemical changes, age, and maturity. This interest stems from suspicions of Borderline Personality Disorder in my eldest sister. My sister was clinically diagnosed with severe Bipolar Disorder at a very early age, and in her early teens some loosely suspicious diagnoses of Borderline Personality Disorder were thrown around as well. My parents and myself were both utterly convinced that she suffered from BPD in addition to her Bipolar, because she exhibited behaviors of pretty much all the symptoms; Intense mood swings, impulsive behaviors, low self-worth, etc… (http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/tc/borderline-personality-disorder-topic-overview). After going through a pregnancy and giving birth to my niece, all of these symptoms seemed to vanish, and symptoms of her Bipolar Disorder seemed to lessen as well. So that brings me back to my question, can symptoms of BPD lessen with changes in chemical balance and time?
“BPD Pathology and the Stability of Interpersonal Problems“
In this study, 150 participants who suffered from BPD were monitored for one year to see if severity of their symptoms was directly related to the interpersonal problems in their life. A base line severity measure for all participants was based on personal severity ratings which were found based on the participant’s responses to a number of questionnaires. Throughout the course of the year, scientists and psychologists monitored the participants to see if their symptoms vanquished with their interpersonal problems, or increased when said problems increased as well. The results were, again, based on the participant’s personal responses to the same questionnaires that were administered at the beginning of the study. This study confirmed that the severity of symptoms of BPD are directly related to the problems in a person with Borderline Personality Disorder’s life. (http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.unm.edu/ehost/detail?sid=631ca9d4-06aa-4a14-846e-13527d9e8be9%40sessionmgr4004&vid=1&hid=4102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=psyh&AN=2013-44247-016)
“Behaviour Research and Therapy”
Another interesting study that tested if symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder could lessen would be this one. In this study 1423 people who suffer from BPD elected to try a three month inpatient treatment that aimed to see if Dialectical Behaviour Therapy could lessen their symptoms. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (in this case) is therapy that involves four components: individual therapy, skills training within a group, telephone coaching by the individual’s therapist, and supervision by the therapeutic team. Again, this study measured their baseline and progress based on self-ratings and questionnaires. Only 45% of participants were regarded as having responded to this treatment; 14.8% had symptoms equal to that of the general population, 11% deteriorated, and 30.8% remained unchanged. (http://ac.els-cdn.com.libproxy.unm.edu/S0005796713000752/1-s2.0-S0005796713000752-main.pdf?_tid=d3d17ee4-b3d6-11e3-9a57-00000aab0f26&acdnat=1395722281_1134fed0f29cb7da38ea838366e30e9d)
“Impact of clinical severity on outcomes of mentalisation-based treatment for borderline personality disorder”
In this study, done by the “British Journal of Psychiatry”, the aim was to find out if treatments over the course of 18 months could reduce symptoms of BPD in patients who suffered from comorbidity, Comorbidity is the existence of two disorders in one person, such as being both Bipolar and having Borderline Personality Disorder like my sister may have. The people involved in this study had recently been subjected to a crisis episode such as attempted suicide or self-inflicted harm. The mentalisation based treatment used in this study is a therapy that is developed to address a hypothetical deficit in the capacity to represent and regulate mental states in those with BPD. Progress in this study was measured every six months; 6, 12, and 18, progress was regarded as the absence of a crisis episode. Secondary progress was yet again based on self-ratings of symptom severity based off of questionnaires. The results of this study show that Mentalisation Based Therapy for patients who suffer from comorbidity is effective, but the extent of that effectiveness is hard to measure. (http://ejscontent.ebsco.com.libproxy.unm.edu/ContentServer.aspx?target=http%3A%2F%2Fbjp%2Ercpsych%2Eorg%2Fcgi%2Fcontent%2Ffull%2F203%2F3%2F221)
In conclusion, more research needs to be done before I can say for certain that my sister did suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder. Based off of the three studies examined prior, I think it’s very possible that her symptoms have lessened greatly, but may still exist, though I can’t say for sure.
miahsudd52 