The Use of Psych Drugs on the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

The Use of Psych Drugs on the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior (CITE). The disorder affects 2 percent of adults, mainly young women. Persons with BPD have difficulty maintaining relationships, and struggle with self-identity. Emotional regulation is the main problem people with Borderline Personality Disorder face. Persons must deal with intense bouts of anger, depression, and anxiety that may last only hours, or at most a day (CITE). Self-injury and suicidal ideation are very common in persons with BPD due to the fact that persons tend to see themselves as bad. Persons with BPD need extensive mental health treatment such as cognitive behavior therapy. In my paper I will compare and contrast two different studies which measured the effectiveness of two different psychotropic drugs on persons with BPD.
Review 1
In 2004, Anvar et. al conducted a study to see if the drug Aripiprazole would aid in the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Aripiprazole is an atypical psychotic drug used in the treatment of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. The drug is known to stabilize the dopamine-seratonin system with little side effects.
Doctors collected subjects by placing an advertisement in a newspaper. Subjects are given a phone number to call in to see if they meet the DMS-IV criteria for BPD, and are then subjected to face-to-face interviews to see if they would qualify for the study. Persons were excluded from the study if they had characteristics that would diagnose them as schizophrenic, if they were pregnant or trying to get pregnant, if they were suicidal, or if they were already undergoing psychiatric or psychotherapy. The doctors collected a sample of 57 persons ages 16 and over to serve as subjects in the study, however, after missing two weeks of testing, 5 subjects were dismissed from the sample. The remaining sample...

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