Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are being stigmatised and left to suffer because of patchy services, confusion over the diagnosis and some health professionals who treat them as “attention seeking”, according to a new report.
BPD is a controversial condition characterised by problems forming relationships, and acute episodes of anger, depression and anxiety. Early life trauma, such as abuse and neglect, is one of the triggers for BPD, leaving people struggling to relate to others and regulate their own emotions. However it is poorly understood by the public and some NHS staff, leaving sufferers facing difficult experiences, the Mental Welfare Commission (MWC) said.
A survey of 70 people in Scotland with BPD heard more than one in ten had found out about their diagnosis by accident, usually by reading their notes. One patient’s doctor told him then added: “oh, I shouldn’t have told you that. It says here not to disclose”. Other patients were viewed by professionals as potentially dangerous - although the report says people with BPD are usually a danger only to themselves. An estimated three quarters of sufferers harm themselves and the risk that they take their own life is as thought to be as high as one in ten.
Interviews with more than 200 GPs and A&E staff found both felt ill-equipped to help people with BPD and called for more support from mental health teams.
Juliet Brock, a psychiatrist with the MWC, said people with BPD often felt they were treated with less sympathy and understanding than other people with mental health conditions. “In some cases they were seen in pejorative terms, as attention-seeking and manipulative - when in reality they were distressed and in need of intervention and support.”
But Alison Thomson, Executive Nursing Director Nursing at the Commission, said while the diagnosis was contentious, patients found having their condition identified was often helpful. There is no known drug treatment for the condition but talking cures can work, where available.
The report calls for health and care integration boards to do more to ensure staff are trained to deal with the condition and for the Scottish Government to ensure the needs of people are not forgotten as part of a drive to recruit an additional 800 mental health staff to the NHS.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here