Borderline and Bipolar

Studies have also found BPD pathology in 50% of patients with POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER and many patients who are BIPOLAR.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and bipolar disorder are frequently confused with each other,

in part because of their considerable symptomatic overlap.

This redundancy occurs despite the different ways these disorders are conceptualized:

BPD as a personality disorder and bipolar disorder as a brain disease among Axis I clinical disorders.

BPD and bipolar disorder—

especially bipolar II—

often co-occur and are frequently misidentified,

as shown by clinical and epidemiologic studies.

Misdiagnosis creates problems for clinicians and patients.

When diagnosed with BPD,

patients with bipolar disorder may be deprived of potentially effective pharmacologic treatments.

Conversely,

the stigma that BPD carries—

particularly in the mental health community—

may lead clinicians to:

not even disclose the BPD diagnosis to patients 2
lean in the direction of diagnosing BPD as bipolar disorder, potentially resulting in treatments that have little relevance or failure to refer for more appropriate psychosocial treatments.

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