Pharmacotherapy for borderline patients: business as usual or by default?

Abstract

In their analysis of a representative sample from the Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health in the UK health services, Paton et al found that 92% of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) received prescriptions for psychotropic medications. Although international guidelines recommend pharmacotherapy for comorbid psychiatric disorders whenever necessary, 82% of the UK BPD patients without such comorbid conditions nevertheless received pharmacotherapy "by default," mostly off-label polypharmacy without adequate psychiatric controls for effectiveness and tolerability. Business as usual? Bad care? International practice guidelines for the treatment of BPD all recommend evidence-based psychological treatment whenever possible (especially manualized psychotherapy like dialectical behavior therapy, schema-focused therapy, mentalization-based treatment, transference-focused psychotherapy) as the first-choice treatment.