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Borderline Personality Disorder Essay

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According to Robert Friedel (2011) the first descriptions of people who were presenting with symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder were mentioned in medical reports 3000 years ago. However it was not until 1938 that the disease was categorized and identified. An American psychoanalyst named Adolph Stern first described most of the symptoms and suggested the possible causes and reasons Borderline Personality Disorder develops, as well as his opinion of the most effective forms of treatment. He eventually named the disorder by referring to patients with the symptoms he described as “the border line group.” (Friedel, 2011) In the 1960s, psychoanalyst Otto Kernberg proposed that mental disorders were determined by three distinct …show more content…

Medications in other classes have since been reported to have efficacy in the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms. (Friedel, 2011) In the 1980s, the first of a number of brain imaging, biochemical and genetic studies were published indicating that Borderline Personality Disorder is associated with biological disturbances in brain function, some of which appear to be genetic. In the early 1990s, Marsha Linehan introduced Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), a specific and well documented psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder patients prone to self injurious behavior and who require frequent, brief hospitalizations. Since then, more therapies have been developed that are specifically designed for Borderline Personality Disorder and the wide range of symptoms that patients often present with. (Friedel, 2011) Over the past decade, many advocacy groups have been founded with the purpose of increasing awareness of Borderline Personality Disorder and its treatments, offer support to Borderline patients and their families and friends, enhance the federal and private research funding dedicated to the disorder, and to decrease its stigmas. These groups are the Treatment and Research Advancements Association for Personality Disorder (TARA APD) and the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEA BPD). Different groups also exist to

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