A cycle often begins in which people with BPD feel emotional pain, engage in impulsive behavior to relieve that pain, feel shame and guilt over their actions, feel emotional pain from the shame and guilt, and then experience stronger urges to engage in impulsive behavior to relieve the new pain. As time goes on, impulsive behavior may become an automatic response to emotional pain. Self-harm and suicide
Self-harming or suicidal behavior is one of the core diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5. Self-harm occurs in 50 to 80% of people with BPD. The most frequent method of self-harm is cutting. Bruising, burning, head banging or biting are also common with BPD. People with BPD may feel emotional relief after engaging in self-harm.The estimation of lifetime risk of suicide among people with BPD varied—depending on method of investigation—between 3% and 10%. There is evidence that men diagnosed with BPD are approximately twice as likely to die by suicide as women diagnosed with BPD. There is also evidence that a considerable percentage of men who die by suicide may have undiagnosed BPD.The reported reasons for self-harm differ from the reasons for suicide attempts. Nearly 70% of people with BPD self-harm without trying to end their lives. Reasons for self-harm include expressing anger, self-punishment, generating normal feelings (often in response to dissociation), and distracting oneself from emotional pain or difficult circumstances. In contrast, suicide attempts typically reflect a belief that others will be better off following the suicide. Suicide and self-harm are responses to feeling negative emotions.
The Cluster A disorders, paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal, are broadly the most common. The Cluster as a whole affects about half, with schizotypal alone affecting one third.BPD is itself a Cluster B disorder. The other Cluster B disorders, antisocial, histrionic, and narcissistic, similarly affect about half of BPD patients (lifetime incidence), with again narcissistic affecting one third or more. Cluster C, avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive, showed the least overlap, slightly under one third. Management
Psychotherapy is the primary treatment for borderline personality disorder. Treatments should be based on the needs of the individual, rather than upon the general diagnosis of BPD. Medications are useful for treating comorbid disorders, such as depression and anxiety. Short-term hospitalization has not been found to be more effective than community care for improving outcomes or long-term prevention of suicidal behavior in those with BPD. Psychotherapy
Long-term psychotherapy is currently the treatment of choice for BPD. While psychotherapy, in particular dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and psychodynamic approaches, is effective, the effects are slow: many people have to put in years of work to be effective.More rigorous treatments are not substantially better than less rigorous treatments. There are six such treatments available: dynamic deconstructive psychotherapy (DDP), mentalization-based treatment (MBT), transference-focused psychotherapy, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), general psychiatric management, and schema-focused therapy. Long-term therapy of any kind is better than no treatment, especially in reducing urges to self-injure.Transference-focused therapy aims to break away from absolute thinking.