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Borderline Personality Disorder Medications
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People with Borderline personality disorder or BPD tends to, have a pattern of unstable relationships, be sensitive and impulsive. This may severely affect the individual along with people around them. The other people around them, most of the time, tend to find it hard to interact or maintain a relationship with these individuals.
Though hard to deal with, there are treatment and medication available that can help individuals with BPD. Medications, to have a positive effect on an individual with BPD, depend on the symptoms present, the medication itself and the biological factors of that individual. There are 3 categories of medications that are seen to reduce symptoms associated with BPD:
- Antipsychotics: Although BPD does not show symptoms of psychosis, antipsychotic drugs in lower doses are seen to be effective in the treatment of BPD. It is seen to be helpful in reducing symptoms such as hostility, anger and cognitive symptoms such as paranoia, suspiciousness, all or none thinking and dissociation. Drowsiness, headache, insomnia, discomfort and restlessness can be some of the side effects caused by this class of drugs.
- Mood stabilizers- These medications play an important role in stabilizing brain chemicals that control behaviour and emotional temperament. Mood stabilizers are seen to reduce BPD symptoms like anger, hopelessness, impulsivity, low mood, mood swings and irritability. Dry mouth, constipation, drowsiness, reduced appetite and nausea are some of the side effects caused by this class of drugs.
- Antidepressants– These medications are seen to reduce symptoms such as low mood, emotional instability, self harm behaviours and impulsivity. One of the common type under this class are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs. They play an important role in altering the production of certain brain chemical affecting behaviour. Headaches, reduced appetite, insomnia, sexual dysfunction and sedation can be some of the side effects caused by this class of drugs.
Note that these medications are to be taken under the strict guidance of a psychiatrist after a detailed discussion on the individual’s symptoms and biological factors.
There are other forms of treatments like psychotherapy; that has been seen to be effective in treating BPD. Psychotherapies are provided by psychologists and some of these are dialectical behaviour therapy, mentalisation-based therapy, schema focused therapy and transference focused psychotherapy.
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However, better and positive results are seen when both psychologists and psychiatrists work together in helping an individual with BPD. In this way physical issues associated to the illness are addressed by a psychiatrist as well as the emotional and behavioural issues are addressed by a psychologist. For managing borderline personality disorder, call our psychiatrists now on +919611194949.
