Can negative attitudes toward patients with borderline personality disorder be changed? The effect of attending a STEPPS workshop.

We sought to determine whether negative attitudes toward patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) can be modified through education. Mental health clinicians attended a 1-day workshop on the Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS) group treatment program for BPD. A questionnaire to assess attitudes towards BPD was given to 271 clinicians before and after the workshop.

Attitudes toward borderline personality disorder: a survey of 706 mental health clinicians.

Objective: We sought to determine attitudes toward patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) among mental health clinicians at nine academic centers in the United States.

Methods: A self-report questionnaire was distributed to 706 mental health clinicians, including psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, social workers, nurses, and psychologists.

Results: The study showed that most clinicians consider BPD a valid diagnosis, although nearly half reported that they preferred to avoid these patients.

Reliability and validity of the Borderline Evaluation of Severity Over Time (BEST): a self-rated scale to measure severity and change in persons with borderline personality disorder.

A new self-rated scale to measure severity and change in persons with borderline personality disorder (BPD) is described. The Borderline Evaluation of Severity Over Time (BEST) was developed to rate the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors typical of BPD. Data were collected in the course of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS) for subjects with BPD.

Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS) for outpatients with borderline personality disorder: a randomized controlled trial and 1-year follow-up.

Objective: Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS) is a 20-week manual-based group treatment program for outpatients with borderline personality disorder that combines cognitive behavioral elements and skills training with a systems component. The authors compared STEPPS plus treatment as usual with treatment as usual alone in a randomized controlled trial.

Method: Subjects with borderline personality disorder were randomly assigned to STEPPS plus treatment as usual or treatment as usual alone.

Relationship of sex to symptom severity, psychiatric comorbidity, and health care utilization in 163 subjects with borderline personality disorder.

Objective: The objective of the study was to compare symptom severity, frequency, and pattern of psychiatric comorbidity, quality of life, and health care utilization in men and women with borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Methods: The analysis is based on a sample of 163 subjects with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition BPD recruited for participation in a clinical trial at an academic medical center. Subjects were administered structured interviews and questionnaires of known reliability.

STEPPS group treatment for borderline personality disorder in The Netherlands.

Background: Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS) is a new cognitive group treatment for outpatients with borderline personality disorder.

Methods: The English and Dutch language literature was reviewed on the STEPPS program.

Results: STEPPS was introduced in The Netherlands in 1998 under the acronym VERS.

STEPPS: a cognitive-behavioral systems-based group treatment for outpatients with borderline personality disorder--a preliminary report.

We describe a new cognitive-behavioral systems-based group treatment for persons with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The program is called STEPPS, an acronym for Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving. Briefly, the program combines cognitive-behavioral techniques and skills training with a systems component.

The borderline diagnosis II: biology, genetics, and clinical course.

In Part I of this three-part article, consideration of the core features of BPD psychopathology, of comorbidity with Axis I disorders, and of underlying personality trait structure suggested that the borderline diagnosis might be productively studied from the perspective of dimensions of trait expression, in addition to that of the category itself. In Part II, we review the biology, genetics, and clinical course of borderline personality disorder (BPD), continuing to attend to the utility of a focus on fundamental dimensions of psychopathology. Biological approaches to the study of personality can identify individual differences with both genetic and environmental influences.

Outcome Following Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Comparison of Primary and Secondary Depression.

In a consecutive series of 117 depressed patients referred for electroconvulsive therapy, the 10 with secondary depression had significantly poorer outcomes according to three independently assessed measures-Hamilton rating scale score at discharge, global rating at discharge, and mean depressive symptom score during a 6-month follow-up.