Carlos Cuevas Yust, Angel G. López Pérez-Díaz
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious psychiatric disorder in which people suffer from emotional instability, severe emotional distress and behavioral difficulties regarding both the relationship they have with themselves and with others. Attempted suicides are common. There is a lot of research about the effectiveness of therapies for this mental disorder. The aim of this review is to show the main empirical studies about psychological interventions for the treatment of BPD. Systematic reviews and clinical trials point to the dialectical-behavior therapy as being the best psychotherapeutic practice for the treatment of people with borderline personality disorder, due to the fact that it can reduce risk of suicide as well as substance abuse. It is thought that cognitive-behavioral therapy might also be an useful approach, although there is less evidence for this; cognitive treatments have not yet shown their effectiveness. Finally, there is evidence that some drugs could significantly improve the therapeutic effects of the psychological treatments used on patients suffering from this disorder.